Councils will normally charge you an administration fee for considering your application, and they may also charge for ongoing monitoring.  Costs range from council to council, but generally non-notified consents cost between $500 and $3000 and notified consents cost between $3000 and $10,000.

From July 2010, if the council does not process an application on time and it is the council’s fault, the council must refund part of the application fee.

Further Information

If you require further help with understanding if you need a resource consent or help lodging a resource consent you can ask to meet council who can give assistance in lodging your consent or you can go to a consultancy where an environmental planner can put the application together and lodge the resource consent on your behalf.

Other people in the community that may be able to assist or provide advice include:

- Any staff at goodGround Real Estate Ltd office
- the citizens advice bureau
- environment and legal centres
- legal advisers
- the Ministry for the Environment website
- resource management consultants

Check your local community directory or the Yellow Pages to find out how to contact them.

However it is always a good idea to talk to your local city or district council first. Council staff can help you look through the relevant plans and work out whether you’ll need a resource consent.

The council can process your application for resource consent in one of three ways, depending on what the relevant plan says and the kind of activity you’re proposing.  The council may decide that the general public need not be involved; this is called a non-notified application.  In fact, most resource consent applications fall into this category, which means that there is no submission or hearings process.

Proposals are publicly notified if they will have or are likely to have an effect on the environment that is ‘more than minor’.   Alternatively, the council may decide there should be limited notification of your application.  This means the council notifies only those people who it considers might be affected by what you’re proposing.  Council staff will tell you whether or not your application will be limited or publicly notified.

Anyone can make a submission on applications that have been publicly notified.  The only exception is if you’re a trade competitor to someone else’s business and you want to oppose their application only for trade or business reasons.   A public hearing is usually held to give applicants and submitters a chance to speak, and informal pre-hearing meetings may also be held.  If you need consents from both a regional council and a district or city council, the two councils may decide to hear the applications together.

Councils can decide to either grant or decline a resource consent.  Some activities are ‘controlled activities’; applications to do these must be granted, except for a few exceptions.  Even so, when granting consent, the council usually puts some conditions on it.   Councils also decide how long to grant resource consent for.  Some consents, like subdivision, last forever, while others might last only for a couple of years, for example, a permit to take water from a river.

Councils are expected to process non-notified applications in roughly a month and notified applications in about four months.
You can help make sure your consent application is processed quickly by:

- talking to the council staff early on about what you want to do
- talking to people who you or the council thinks might be affected by your proposal
- giving the council a well-prepared assessment of environmental effects
- responding quickly to requests for further information as the council can decline applications if there is insufficient information to process it

Part 6: Costs and Further Information coming soon!

Assessment of Environmental Effects

If you need to obtain a resource consent, then the district/city or regional council should also explain how to go about preparing an assessment of environmental effects (AEE). Every application for a resource consent must include an assessment of environmental effects.

An AEE identifies all the environmental effects, positive and negative, of a proposed activity, and ways in which any negative effects can be prevented or reduced.  The amount of information the council requires will depend on the activity proposed and the kind of resource consent you need.  Therefore, if the application is for a large subdivision then a large details AEE is required where if you are carrying out a two lot subdivision a smaller application is required.

If you’re thinking about buying some land, a business or a building, or you want to subdivide land, discharging waste water into a stream, moving earth, or discharging pollution into the air and these plans fall outside the rules in your regional or district Plans you will need to get a resource consent.

One job for councils is deciding whether to grant resource consents to people wanting to undertake activities that might affect the environment.

Whether you’ll need a resource consent, and what type of consent you’ll need, depends on the type of activity you want to do, and how it’s classified in your local district or regional plan.  Every council plan is different, so don’t simply assume that just because you didn’t need a consent in one town, you won’t need a consent in another. There are also likely to be differences between areas within a district/city or region depending on what ‘zone’ your activity falls in.

Before you start any activity that might affect your neighbours, your wider community or your environment, contact your local council or check out their website.  Council staff will tell you whether you need to apply for a resource consent.  They will also tell you if the activity is prohibited, which means that it is expressly not allowed and you can’t even apply for a resource consent.

Activities that need a resource consent are classified as controlled, restricted discretionary, discretionary and non-complying. The council has to grant a resource consent for a controlled activity (with a couple of exceptions), but can refuse to grant a resource consent for a restricted discretionary, discretionary or non-complying activity.

There are five types of resource consent:

-land-use consent
-subdivision consent
-water permit
-discharge permit
-coastal permit

If you do need to apply for a resource consent, council staff will tell you:

-how your activity is classified in the plan, and what kind of resource consent you need to apply for
-whether you need to apply to both the district/city and the regional council for a resource consent (or they will refer you to the other council)
-what information you need to supply in support of your application
-how long the process is likely to take, and how much the council is likely to charge

The first step is always to contact the council to discuss the activity you want to do. If you’re unsure whether your activity will affect your neighbours, community or environment, check with the council; don’t just go ahead.

Part 4: Assessment of Environmental Effects & Public Consultation coming soon!

The RMA requires councils to create plans that help them manage the environment. These plans contain all sorts of rules and conditions for activities that might affect the environment.  District and regional plans are one of the most important aspects of the RMA.  The RMA says that councils have to prepare plans to help them manage the environment in their area.  It is these plans that tell you what you can or cannot do as of right, and there are several different types.

 Regional plans, (created by a regional council), tend to concentrate on particular parts of the environment, like the coast, soil, a river or the air. They set out how discharges or activities involving these resources will be managed to stop the resources being degraded or polluted, for example, the construction of jetties, and the discharge of wastewater from factories into waterways.

The Resource Management Act (RMA) integrates environmental management.  In 1991 it replaced fifty different statutes that dealt with air quality, noise control, water and soil conservation, town planning and coastal management.  It covers all the effects on our environment that we rely on and value, such as breathing clean air or swimming at an unpolluted beach.  It also encourages the protection of areas of our natural environment that provide habitat for indigenous species. 

 The purpose of the RMA is to promote the sustainable management of land, sea, air and water; with the focus on the effects that human activities have on the environment, rather than the types of activities.  The environment is defined very broadly beyond just natural and physical resources, to include amenity values, all ecosystems and their parts (including people and communities).  It does this by requiring that resources be protected for future generations and that the adverse effects of any proposed activities on the environment are avoided, remedied or mitigated.  Effects are also defined very broadly to include ‘cumulative, future’ and ‘potential effects’ (including those of a low probability, but which have a high potential impact).  It also provides a set of environmental principles for resource management planning and decision making.

 The RMA is controlled by 78 local authorities comprising 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities (unitary authorities, city and district councils).  District and city councils are generally responsible for making decisions about anything that might affect what the community has agreed is important:

- the effects of land use (e.g. plans to clear native bush or change historic buildings)
- the effects of activities on the surface of rivers and lakes
- noise
- subdivision

District and city councils also carry out responsibilities under the Local Government Act, for example, catching stray dogs, mowing public playing grounds and removing rubbish.

 Regional councils are generally responsible for making decisions about resources that are not generally owned by individuals:

- discharges of contaminants to land, air or water
- water quality and quantity
- the coastal marine area
- soil conservation
- land use to avoid natural hazards

Part Two: District and Regional Plans coming soon!

New Zealand’s low population and limited industrial base means that our environmental issues are generally less severe than those in many other industrialised countries. However, we need to make progress with these issues if New Zealanders are to have the healthy environment and quality of life they want.

New Zealanders are proud of New Zealand’s clean green image and committed to living in this environment in a way that meets our social, economic and environmental needs – now and in the future. Sustainability integrates this concern for social, economic and environmental issues, and involves thinking broadly about objectives, considering long-term as well as short-term effects, assessing indirect as well as direct effects, and taking extra care when changes brought about by development might be irreversible.

Development on a small lifestyle farm block is no different and also needs to be well thought through as there are many specific environmental issues that have the potential to impact on the productivity of your property and the broader communities’ environment.

The first thing to contemplate when purchasing or beginning on new developments in and around your property is what you are legally able to do. You need to check your certificate of title along with your Regional and District Plans to stream quality, water supply you have an understanding of what you can and can’t do on your property you may want to consider carrying out various activities to enhance your current living environment.

When determining what activities are legally permitted on your property you also need to be aware of what services are available to your property. Depending on what services your property is provided for it may be necessary to install your own, for example, water, and sewage. It is essential to plan the layout of where and what system you need to put in place and to ensure there is enough resource to carry out the plans you are proposing. The location of your waste water and storm water runoff is critical for health reasons alone; you do not want to get any cross contamination and cause you, your family or any stock on your property health scares. There are many economic types of domestic sewerage disposal units available and many simply designed structures for farm runoff.

If you are not connected to your town supply for water you need to ensure a source and a plentiful supply to sustain your domestic requirements. You may also wish to have enough water to provide for irrigation to your property to improve pasture or horticulture production as well sheep_drinking as providing drinking water for any stock on the property. Without a reliable supply of water to your property future developments become limited. It is beneficial to become familiar and understand these systems so the design best suited to you and your property can be implemented.

If you have existing streams running through your property and are able to draw on the water (your Regional and/or District Council will be able to tell you this) it is to your advantage to ensure the water quality is maintained or that you are aware of improvements that can be carried out if necessary. There are several easy ways to improve water quality on a lifestyle block.

Two easy ways to increase stream quality are to plant trees along the stream boundary creating a riparian zone or buffer. These trees can be strategically planted for aesthetics, shelter from the weather, traffic, privacy, and for your animals or for investment reasons with the intention of harvesting the trees in the future. There are many different tree species to choose from when planting up riparian zones and this should be researched to ensure the appropriate tress species is planted to complement the soil, planting location and the desired purpose. For more information on this see the goodGround report on Lifestyle Block Trees. By planting trees and or shrubs along stream edges you will also support the stream banks and reduce the amount of soil entering the stream. Another, but often a more expensive option is to fence the streams off so no animals can enter the area and therefore will not disturb the stream banks. Fonterra have signed a clean stream accord stating that dairy cattle will be excluded from entering 50% of streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries by 2007 and 90% by 2012.

If you are interested in trees or growing fruit trees it may be beneficial to protect your investment with pest and weed control.There are numerous types and methods of controls for managing or eradicating either weeds or pests from your property. Depending on your way of life traps can be set to capture pests and kill them immediately, which would mean that you would have to remove the dead animal and reset to bait laying by yourself or by using a contractor to try biological techniques. When controlling or eradicating weeds there is a range of herbicides available or there are methods which are less detrimental to the environment, for example, companion planting.

Any activities that you carry out on your property should be completed to industry best practice standards. Most operations carried out, whether it be fencing or tree planting, or installing an irrigation system, have regulations which must be met. These standards are easily obtainable through your local Regional or District Council or from the Ministry of the Environment.

The wide-open spaces of the country side are truly something to care for. You can do many things to maintain the quality of your life by taking responsibility to sustain the land, water and other natural resources. Get started by properly caring for your water supply, waste disposal systems, streams, and soil on your property. GoodGround is here to help you achieve this!