Notification decision

Notified consents allow members of the public or specific people to give feedback on applications that affect them.

Decision making process

The processing planner will prepare a report on your resource consent application that recommends whether or not the public, or specific persons, should be given an opportunity to have a say on your resource consent application.

We must decide to process your application as either a:

  • non-notified consent if your application will have ‘no more than minor’ adverse effects on the environment and there are considered to be no ‘adversely affected persons’; or
  • limited notified consent if we consider that specific persons will be adversely affected by your proposal (you'll be given the opportunity to seek their written approval first); or
  • publicly notified consent if your application adversely affects the wider environment, including the broader community, to a 'more than minor' extent.

 

If you cannot get written approval from the specific persons that we consider to be adversely affected by your proposal, then the limited notification process requires us to serve notice of your application on those persons. Only the persons served with notice may make a submission on your resource consent application.

The submission period will be open for 20 working days (or this may be less if submissions are received earlier from all of those persons who were served with notice). You will receive an email or letter from our processing planner to let you know about any submissions received.

The public notification process requires us to publicly advertise your resource consent application in a newspaper and on our website. We will also directly notify any persons we consider to be adversely affected. Anyone may make a submission on your resource consent application.

The submission period will be open for 20 working days and you will receive an email or letter from our processing planner to let you know about any submissions received.

If we consider that a hearing is necessary, or the resource consent applicant or any submitters on the application request to be heard, then we have to hold a hearing.

From the date that submissions close, the time taken to issue a decision on a resource consent application will normally be:

  • 20 working days for a limited or publicly notified consent with no hearing
  • 60 working days for a limited notified consent where a hearing is held
  • 90 working days for a publicly notified consent where a hearing is held

A resource consent applicant can suspend the processing of the consent application during this time and this will extend the time taken to issue a decision.