Preparing your application

You need resource consent from Southland District Council if your proposed building work, development, or activity is not allowed as of right (is not a permitted activity) under the Southland District Plan rules or a relevant National Environmental Standard (NES).

Before you apply for resource consent for your project, we recommend you get pre-application guidance, especially if your proposal is for a more complex development such as multiple dwellings or large-scale subdivision. You can arrange a pre-application meeting with us to discuss your plans, but you also may need to engage a planning consultant to assist you. This can save you some time and money in the long run.

Straight forward projects, such as extending your dwelling, may only need an email, phone call or online meeting with one of our planners. Appointments to discuss simple resource consent applications with a planner are free of charge for the first 30 minutes.

We can be contacted by email sdc@southlanddc.govt.nz or by phoning the customer service team on 0800 727 059.

There are some things you should check first before you apply for a resource consent, including the record of title for your property. Check the record of title to see if it has any conditions such as consent notices, covenants, rights of way, and easements that may restrict your proposed activity. You can order a copy of the title from Land Information New Zealand. You may need professional help to understand the rights and restrictions.

Information required in your application

Full details of the information required in an application for resource consent is detailed in Schedule 4 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and the Southland District Plan.

You will need to include a detailed description of the proposed activity and the site, and plans showing the location of the activity and any nearby buildings. You may also need details on how close your neighbours are, a description of any physical limitations of the site, and what services are in the area.

While it is possible to prepare an application yourself, it is often advisable to talk to a planning consultant. Planning consultants are able to advise on the merits of your activity and if appropriate, prepare and lodge your resource consent application on your behalf.

Assessment of Environmental Effects

An Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE) is a key component of a resource consent application. An AEE is a written statement/report which identifies the effects of your proposed activity or activities on the environment so we can assess the likely impact of the proposal.

Effects on the environment that you will need to consider can be short-term or long-term, positive or negative, and may include:

• traffic and parking
• heritage or streetscape character
• overshadowing of properties
• reduction in privacy
• noise and vibration
• flooding and erosion
• stability of land
• infrastructure (including capacity)
• people and community
• ecological

Get specialist input if needed

Depending on your application, you may need to obtain a report from a technical specialist. For example, if effects on the landscape and natural character of an area, or visual effects, are an issue for your project, you may need to engage a landscape specialist to prepare a report assessing the effects of your project. Or, if you are in a flood zone, you may need to engage an engineer with experience in flooding assessment.

Common types of applications that may require specialist input are:

• Contaminated site – site investigations (as necessary) by a suitably qualified and experienced practitioner
• Archaeological or historic sites – assessment by an archaeologist and/or a cultural impact assessment
• Traffic or parking breaches – assessment by a traffic engineer
• Indigenous vegetation clearance – assessment by an ecologist
• Subdivision or development in visually sensitive areas, or of an unanticipated type, density or scale – assessment from a landscape specialist and/or urban designer
• Medium-large scale earthworks, or earthworks in sensitive or unstable areas – assessment by a geotechnical engineer
• Subdivision or development with the potential to affect cultural values – cultural impact assessment

Consult with affected persons

Depending on your proposal, sometimes we may consider some parties to be affected by your application (neighbours, etc). If you think that parties will be affected by your application, you may wish to talk to them about your plans and include their written approval with your application. Any site plans should also be signed by the affected parties and attached to the forms. This can speed up the processing of your application.

We cannot formally identify/confirm whether there are any affected parties for your application until you lodge the application and a planner from the resource consents team assesses the effects. If you cannot get written approval from affected parties identified by the processing planner then your application may be notified.

You can apply to us to change your resource consent conditions (under section 127 of the RMA) if you wish to make changes to your plans or if you think the conditions that were imposed are no longer appropriate or necessary.  For subdivision consents, an application under section 127 can only be made before the survey plan is deposited under section 224. After the deposit of a survey plan, an application must be made under section 221 for any variation or cancellation of a consent notice.

When we are considering an application to change resource consent conditions, it is only the effects of the change that are considered, and the processing planner does not reconsider the entire consent. As part of processing these types of applications, we must, in determining if there are any adversely affected parties, consider every person who made a submission on the original application and may be affected by the change or cancellation.

Following lodgement of a resource consent application, it will be checked for completeness by a planner in our resource consents team.  If an application does not contain the required information the planner may consider it to be incomplete and it will be returned to you within 10 working days of lodgement. This will incur a fee as per our current fees and charges.

Further information

Read the useful guide on the Ministry for the Environment website, which outlines information on applying for a resource consent.