Waikato District Council says that its Resource Consent pre-application service is available again. The service was paused in March last year, while staff dealt with large numbers of consent applications and the impacts of Covid-19.
The pre-application service is offered to:
- Help customers understand if they need a consent.
- Help customers better understand what information Council would expect to receive as part of a resource consent application.
- Identify any potential issues with their proposal.
- Set realistic expectations in terms of potential outcomes.
There is a lot happening in the resource consenting space with the release of the Proposed District Plan – Appeals Version, Variation 3 to the Proposed District Plan relating to the Medium Density Residential standards and new legislation coming into effect. For this reason, we know this service will be valuable to you and we want to help provide some direction on these matters (and other matters).
It’s important to note that we are still experiencing heavy demand for consenting services and so, at this stage, we will only be providing written advice to customers unless we consider it necessary to meet beforehand. Any request by an Applicant (or their Agent) for a pre-application meeting will be considered once an application and supporting documentation is received and we have a better understanding of the level/scale of advice needed.
We’ll look at this again at the end of July, to see if we are able to fully resume the service.
What you’ll need to provide
In terms of what should be provided with an application for pre-application advice, at a minimum we’ll need you to provide the following:
- A description of the proposal (for example, don’t just state ‘subdivision of land’).
- A scheme plan
- A list of District Plan non-compliances associated with the proposed activity that you have identified
- Specific questions (not generic such as “can I subdivide my land?”). Think about the specific matters you need Council to confirm/provide advice on.
- If this information isn’t provided upfront, we’ll need to request this information which may result in a delay in providing advice.
Not provided as part of this service
Please note the following information is not provided as part of this service.
- Confirmation of all the information you will need to provide with a resource consent application.
- Confirmation of who may be affected by the proposal and/or whether the application will be notified.
- Identifying all District Plan non-compliances associated with a proposed activity.
- Building consent enquiries – please direct these to Council’s Building Team: building.applications@waidc.govt.nz
- Any public network enquiries (i.e., roading or three waters enquiries). For these, please contact our Call Centre on 0800 492 452 to initiate discussions with these departments.
- Any enquiries regarding public reserves (whether existing or proposed).
- If your application requires input from our Roading, Reserves and/or Watercare Teams, you’ll need to get information from the relevant team first. The easiest way is to do this is to phone our Call Centre on 0800 492 452 and explain who you need to talk to.
It would be helpful to provide copies of any advice you receive from these departments with your application for pre-application advice.
If you need further help putting together an application or understanding the consenting process, please engage the services of a professional planning consultant or surveyor to assist with your application.
For more information, and to request a pre-application service, click here.