The Ministry for the Environment gives these guidelines for gathering all the information you'll need.
Get the resource consent application forms from the Council’s website.
Link to our resource consent application forms
You will find a comprehensive list of the information that you must provide with your application in Schedule 4 of the RMA.
TRMP - Chapter 26 - Information required with coastal permit applications (pdf 97 KB)
TRMP - Chapter 37 - information required with a discharge permit application (pdf 114 KB)
The Ministry for the Environment has guidance on the information requirements under section 88 and Schedule 4 of the RMA.
Identify who might be interested in or affected by the activity and how they might be affected
Talk to these 'affected persons'. Ask them to give you their written approval if you don’t want your application to be notified. Alternatively, you can tell the Council why you don’t think they’re affected or why you can’t get their approval.
If this is a coastal permit application involving occupation, usually you must also notify and seek views from any group that has applied for recognition of customary marine title in the area. The only times you don't need to, is if the coastal marine area is owned (freehold, and shown by a Record of Title), or the area is a reserve, conservation area, or national park.
You can find the list of applicants on the Te Arawhiti website.
Provide an assessment of what you want to do against the matters set out in part 2 of the RMA and any relevant provisions of the documents referred to in section 104(1)(b) of the RMA.
The documents referred to in section 104(1)(b) include district or regional plan, a national environmental standard, a national policy statement and a regional policy statement.
Get any other information the Council has asked for. This is often identified in the Council’s plan or on the application forms.
You may need to show how any other aspects of your proposal are permitted, and also identify if you need any permissions under any other public laws.
Consider if you need to employ an expert (resource management professional) to help you prepare the information.
We can assist you to make informed decisions about your application and avoid unnecessary delays and costs in its processing by ensuring you:
Planning advice is not a substitute for a Land Information Memorandum (LIM). You should not rely on planning advice in making any property purchase decisions. You should get a LIM in to access all relevant information the Council knows about a property.
There are three main options for obtaining information and guidance:
For more detail on these options, see below, or download our duty planning and pre-application advice brochure.
Download the duty planning and pre application advice brochure (pdf 1.7 MB)
For general enquiries or simple proposals at a very eary stage, you can talk to one of our duty planners free of charge for up to 30 minutes.
Phone us on 03 543 8400 or email [email protected].
Give us the address or location and what you are thinking of doing, such as a subdivision or the kind of use or development of land.
Let us know how you prefer to hear from the duty planner:
If your enquiry is complex, the duty planner may suggest that you request more formal pre-application advice.
Sometimes the duty planner's answer on your project needs technical input from other specialist staff.
If so, we will need some written information on your ideas and initial concept plans or sketches.
The duty planner will then provide you with
Our aim is to provide you with your advice within five working days, subject to the availability of our specialist staff.
We individually tailor pre-application meetings to allow you to discuss more complex proposals in person with the relevant staff.
Consider requesting a pre-application meeting before or at the design stage for the following types of projects:
We will advise you of the timeframe for the pre-application meeting, depending on the availability of the relevant staff.
The cost of a pre-application meeting depends on the complexity of your project.
The first 30 minutes of the meeting is free.
The staff costs pre and post meeting are incorporated into the total cost of the meeting.
That time charged for includes:
We charge on a time-cost basis to recover our reasonable costs. We're happy to provide a fees estimate. For example if we identify further research after the meeting we can give you an estimate of the likely time.
Council staff will give their professional opinion on the proposal and provide guidance where possible. This includes:
The meeting is not intended to pre-empt the outcome of the resource consent process. We will not be able to pre-determine whether:
These decisions can't be made until you've lodged a complete application and we've received and assessed it.
Once lodged the application will need to be assessed against the requirements of the Resource Management Act.
You must still make sure your resource consent application is complete in its own right. None of the information provided via this pre-application request can be taken as included in or considered as part of your subsequent application.
To request pre-application advice, you just need to complete an online form.
If you're undertaking a major project, such as new urban developments or buildings, 'greenfield' subdivisions or a prominent or strategic development, you may also be able to get help from the Urban Design Panel.
While you must come up with your design vision and present it to the Urban Design Panel, they will provide valuable feedback on your design response to realise the potential of your site.
Last modified:
