Applying for Resource Consent
Application assessment process
Once we receive your resource consent application, this is the process we use to assess it:
1. Check for completeness
- We check you’ve given us all necessary information in your application
- If necessary details or your deposit aren’t included we’ll send it back to you, which delays the processing of your application
- If it’s complete, you’ll receive a reference number, usually within ten working days
2. Assessing your application
- Our planners will assess your application within 20 working days and keep you updated on its progress
- For non-notified applications, if we take longer than 20 working days to assess your application you are entitled to a discount under the RMA
- We’ll get input from specialists as needed and ask for more information if required – this is called a ‘section 92’ request, and delays the processing of your application until the information is received
- The planner will visit the site as part of the assessment.
3. Complex applications
- In complicated cases, planners may need to commission a report on some aspect of your application. You’ll be notified, and you may agree or refuse to have the report done. If you refuse, we will still continue assessing your application.
4. Make recommendations
- Our planner will prepare a report on whether anyone is affected and if the public should be notified and given the chance to submit their feedback
- The planner's report will also recommend whether or not the application should be approved
More information
See notifications and hearings for more about the approval process, or conditions, appeals and objections for information on monitoring approved resource consents, and what you can do if your application is denied.
Resource consent help
You can request a pre-application meeting with a council planner for a complex project or to discuss options when preparing your application for a resource consent by calling 0800 WAIPADC (924 723) or emailing info@waipadc.govt.nz.
You can seek help to complete your application from a professional such as resource management consultants, surveyors, engineers, landscape architects, arborists, archaeologists, heritage specialists or a lawyer.
To find professional advice in your area, try:
- Envirolink - for local environmental specialists
- NZ Institute of Surveyors
- NZ Planning Institute
- NZ Institute of Landscape Architects
- The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand
- The Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand
- NZ Law Society
- Yellow Pages - search under resource management consultants or surveyors.
It may also be important to get advice from tangata whenua (local iwi or hapū authorities).
For a helpful guide to the resource consent process, you can also view the Ministry for the Environment's Everyday Guide to the Resource Management Act.
Guidance applying for resource consent or DPBA
Guidance applying for resource consent or a deemed permitted boundary activity
Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE)
All applications (subdivision and landuse consent) need an AEE:
- Guide to preparing a basic AEE - Ministry for the Environment
- AEE requirements - Resource Management Act 1991
Please note: the more detailed and accurate your information, the more quickly and efficiently we will be able to process your application.
