Setting the scene: resource consents
Under the RMA councils create district and regional plans. These plans set out the way the council will manage and protect the environment. Rules in plans control what people can do in the environment.
What is a resource consent?
Some activities can be done as of right, but others need permission from the local council. This permission is called a resource consent. Every day, people apply to their local council for resource consent to do something such as put up a garage, subdivide their property, build a multi-storey apartment block, or take water from a stream.
When a council grants a resource consent, it often attaches conditions about how the activity can be carried out. These conditions help avoid or minimise adverse effects on the environment.
What is a notified resource consent?
Sometimes the council will publicly notify an application for resource consent. The council will notify applications that might have an effect on the environment that is more than minor, or where the applicant requests their application be publicly notified. The council will also publicly notify a resource consent application if it considers that special circumstances exist, or if the district or regional plan says it must.
If the effects of the activity are not more than minor, or the district or regional plan says the resource consent application needn't be publicly notified, the council might notify the application just to those persons it considers to be affected. If all people affected have given their approval to the activity, an application will generally not be notified.
Something being publicly notified means the council advertises it publicly, notifies directly affected people, and often puts a sign up at the site involved. People can then make submissions about the activity being notified. If something is only notified to certain people, only those people can make a submission about the activity being notified.
