Stage 2: Lodging your application (the council considers your application)
When you lodge your application, the council officer(s) dealing with your application will check your application, and that you have paid your application fee and let you know if anything more is needed. Sometimes the council will approve or decline your application right away.
The council can reject the application and return it within five working days or request further information at most points through the process if the application is incomplete. You can refuse to provide the requested further information to the council, and request the council to proceed with the application on the basis of the information already provided. The council must then process the application and either grant or refuse the application based on the information they already have. The council is unlikely to grant an application for resource consent if they can not determine the likely effects.
In other cases, the council will notify your application so it can hear other people's views. Sometimes an application is notified to the public generally. Other times it might just be notified to people the council has identified as affected persons.
A working day means any day except for a weekend day, public holiday, and those days between 20 December and 10 January.
A council officer will most likely prepare a report on your application (called an officer's report). The report will usually include recommendations about whether the council should grant a resource consent, and what conditions should be placed on it. You can ask council staff if you can provide informal feedback on the recommended conditions in the council officer's report.
If a council has a conflict of interest over an application, staff will arrange for someone who is not a council officer to consider it. This might happen, for example, when the council owns land next to an application site.
A hearing is a public meeting where a committee or a commissioner hears evidence for and against your application, and decides whether to approve it. Generally, only you or anyone who has made a submission is allowed to speak at the hearing. You'll have the chance to comment on an officer's report about your application, and on any submissions that have been made.
Notified applications
The council will decide whether or not to publicly notify your application based on what the plan says, and the classification, scale and effects of the activity. Your application will generally be publicly notified if the council considers that the effects on the environment will be more than minor. The council must publicly notify your application if you request it to do so.
Public notification means that the council advertises the application in the newspaper and calls for written statements (submissions) from people. The council also sends copies of your application to all the people it thinks might be affected by the activity.
In the future, you may be able to appeal the council's decision to notify the application to the Environment Court.
In some cases the council may choose to serve notice of your application to a limited number of people. This occurs when the plan says your application only needs to be notified to certain people, or when the effects of your application are minor but you haven't got the written approval of everyone the council considers is adversely affected. These will be people who were identified as affected persons. In these cases, the application is not advertised in the newspaper.
Anyone can make a submission about an application that is publicly notified. But if an application is notified only to affected persons, only those persons may make a submission.
Submissions can also include suggested conditions for the resource consent.
A hearing
A hearing allows you and anyone who has made a submission to explain their views about the application. The council usually holds a formal hearing about a notified application and can sometimes hold a hearing for a non-notified application.
A pre-hearing meeting can be a useful way to try and sort out issues before a hearing in a relatively informal setting. It can be a useful way to save time at the hearing itself, or even avoid the need for a hearing altogether. You can suggest to the council that a pre-hearing meeting may be useful.
The council can require or invite people to attend the pre-hearing meeting including people who have made submissions on your application. The council officer who prepared the report will also be likely to attend. If you are required to attend a pre-hearing meeting, and don't, the council may refuse to process your application. If submitters are required to attend a pre-hearing meeting, and don't, the council can refuse to consider their submission.
Everyone at the hearing will get a copy of a report about what went on at the pre-hearing meeting, including the issues that were agreed on and those that are outstanding. The council must consider the report in determining the application.
The council can also refer you and some or all of the submitters to mediation. Mediation can help you clarify issues, resolve conflicts and reach agreement without needing to go to a hearing. You can request the council to refer you to mediation.
Non-notified applications
If the council decides not to notify your application, it won't advertise the application and won't call for submissions. The council will make a decision based on the application. Councils generally don't notify applications when the environmental effects of the activity will be minor, and all affected parties have provided their written approval.
Only about five percent of applications are publicly notified. These tend to be applications for activities with significant effects.
Is my application confidential?
No. Once you've sent your application to the council, it becomes public information. The council might agree to keep some material private if it is commercially sensitive. You need to identify that material clearly. Otherwise, if asked, the council will provide copies of any application.
Do I have to pay?
Yes. Councils almost always charge for processing resource consent applications. If your application needs to be publicly notified, or notice served to affected parties, you'll probably be charged more, because of the advertising costs and extra work involved, like hearing costs. You'll also have to pay for any printing or copying costs. Costs range from council to council.
In 2005, the two-yearly survey of local authorities conducted by the Ministry for the Environment showed the average cost of non-notified resource consents to be $350 to $600, and the average cost of notified resource consents to be $3000 to $5000.
If the council grants the resource consent with monitoring and supervising conditions, you might have to pay an additional charge for those activities.
Discuss costs with the council early on, and ask for a schedule of charges. Regardless of whether your consent is granted or declined, if you paid a deposit, you may be charged additional costs. If you withdraw your application later on, you may not get your money back and may still be charged for time spent and costs incurred by the council. You can help keep the costs down by making your application and assessment of environmental effects as thorough as possible.
How quickly does the council decide?
Councils need to comply with the timeframes contained in the RMA. If you've provided all the necessary information, the council should be able to make a decision about non-notified applications within one month, and about notified applications within four months. The council will decide whether to notify your application within 10 working days of receiving it.
There might be a delay in processing your application if, for example:
- you don't supply all the information the council needs
- you need other consents for the activity, and the council decides to consider all the applications as a single package
- the activity is large and complex
- there's disagreement about the conditions for the resource consent.
The council can stop processing your consent if it needs you to provide further information. You can help avoid delays by talking to council staff early in the process.
