Consultation and notification

Consultation

Do I need to consult with my neighbours, or people who might be affected?

Consulting with people who might be affected by your proposal can help you:

• find out if they’ll support or oppose your proposal
• find out if you can address any issues they might have
• obtain their written approval for your proposal

If everyone who’s likely to be affected by your proposal give their written approval, we may be able to process your application without public notification.

Remember, 'consultation' does not mean 'agreement'. Even after consulting, there may still be unresolved issues.

Keep an open mind, be flexible and allow a reasonable timeframe.

You may be able to change your proposal to meet an affected person's concerns and still achieve your own objectives.

For large proposals, you may wish to consult more than once as your proposal develops.

Who should I consult with?

• Adjacent landowners/occupiers
• Tangata whenua (local iwi/hapū authorities)
• Anyone else affected by your proposal.

What does it mean if my application is notified?

If your application is notified, then people are able to make a submission on your application and become involved in the hearing of your application.

For applications that are currently open for submission, see current publicly notified consents on the have your say page.

What types of notification are there?

• Limited notification
  • If the effects of your proposal are "minor" or "more than minor" and you have not obtained written approval from everyone who is likely to be affected, we may notify those people, unless our district or plan prevent us from doing so, or give us discretion to do so
  • Affected people can make a submission supporting or opposing your application within 20 working days
• Public notification
  • If we determine that the effects of your proposal are "more than minor", we may decide to publicly notify your application. A public notice will appear in newspapers
  • We will also directly notify adversely affected people and people we are required to notify under the Resource Management Act 1991.
  • Anyone can make a submission supporting or opposing your application within 20 working days.

Who can make submissions on my notification?

We encourage applicants and submitters to communicate directly to discuss, identify and address any concerns. If this is not successful, we will hold a public hearing to decide on your application.

Hearings

What is a resource consent hearing?

Hearings are formal meetings where Councillors or independent hearing commissioners:

• Consider your application
• Listen to any evidence for and against your application
• Listen to any submissions made
• Make a decision on your application

Before the hearing, all parties will receive notice of the date, time and venue for the hearing at least ten working days in advance.

Our planner's report and recommendations will be sent to you and to all submitters who indicated that they wished to speak about their submissions. These will be circulated fifteen working days before the hearing for notified consents, or five working days before the hearing for non-notified consents.

What is the hearing process?

If your application is the subject of a hearing, you or your representatives present your application and call any experts to provide evidence in support of your application.

Submitters who indicated they wished to be heard at the hearing have an opportunity to present their submission. They can also call experts or representatives to provide evidence in relation to their submission.

You then have a right of reply to any issues raised by the submitters. After your reply, the chairperson closes the public part of the hearing.

Any member of the public can attend a hearing; however, the only people who can speak at the hearing are:

• The hearing commissioners
• You and your witnesses
• Waipā District Council staff
• Submitters and supporting witnesses.

Speakers cannot raise issues beyond the scope of your application or any submission.

What happens after the hearing?

Following the public part of the hearing, the Councillors or hearing commissioners consider all information supplied by you, any submitters, and council staff. This includes all written submissions, even if they were not presented at the hearing.

The Councillors / hearings commissioners decide whether or not to grant a consent and consider any conditions that may be applied.

Unless the timeframe is extended, we will notify you and everyone involved of the Councillors / hearing commissioners' decision, in writing within 15 working days. The letter will state the reasons for their decision.

Conditions

Are there conditions on my consent?

Consents granted will most likely come with conditions that you need to comply with, and that will be monitored by the council.

If your consent is declined, you may wish to object to or appeal the decision.

Resource consent conditions

To comply with resource consent conditions you may have to:

• Do certain things within a timeframe, including notifying the council when works start
• Advise us when these steps have been taken
• Have an aspect of your activity signed off by a council staff member
• There may also be limits on what you are able to do

It’s our responsibility to monitor resource consents to ensure that you comply with the conditions. This may involve:

• Monitoring by the consent holder
• Routine inspections by our enforcement officers
• Inspections by consultants appointed by the council.

Fees for resource consent monitoring are charged at an hourly rate. Each resource consent calls for different skills and technical knowledge from various council staff, as well as different monitoring strategies.

If you don’t meet the conditions of a resource consent, we may take a variety of steps, including issuing:

• An abatement notice (essentially an official notice requiring you to follow a specific course of action)
• An enforcement order (court-backed order demanding compliance)
• An instant fine

Severe breaches of the conditions of a resource consent can result in prosecution and a fine imposed by the courts.

Can I appeal or object to resource consent decisions?

If you're unhappy with a decision on your resource consent, you can object to the council or appeal to the Environment Court.

A consent applicant may object under section 357A of the Resource Management Act, provided:

• The application was not publicly notified
• If the application was publicly notified or served on your immediate neighbour/s, no submissions were received
• If there were submissions, they were later withdrawn.

You can also object under section 357B of the Resource Management Act if we ask you to pay additional processing charges or costs after the decision has been made.

You need to send your objection to us in writing within 15 working days from the date you received the decision.

In your objection, you should include the reasons for the objection.

The objection process will follow these steps:

• We will consider your objection as soon as practicable and within 20 working days
• A planner will consider the objection and discuss it with the applicant. Where resolution cannot be reached, the planner will prepare a report on your objection, summarising the matters that have been raised, and provide a recommendation
• A hearing will be held to consider and determine the objection. You will be provided a copy of the planner's report and at least five working days' notice of the date, time and place of the hearing
• The objection may be dismissed or upheld, either in whole or part. You will be given a decision in writing within 15 working days of the hearing

If you are dissatisfied with the council's decision on your objection, you may appeal to the Environment Court within 15 working days of the date you received the objection decision.

Appealing to the Environment Court

Appeals to the Environment Court can be made by:

• The applicant or consent holder
• Anyone who made a submission

You need to:

• Make your appeal on the prescribed form and pay a filing fee. To find out more, visit the Environment Court website
• You need to lodge your appeal to the Environment Court and send us a copy of your notice of appeal within 15 working days of receiving the decision
• Send a copy of your notice of appeal to every person who made a submission on the application