The Wellington region will moved to Orange Level on Friday 3 December.
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Bin Enquiry FormThere are three significant parts to a district plan:
The first thing to identify is what zone the land is in. District plans have maps identifying all areas in the district and assigning them a zone.
The planning maps also identify other features that may be relevant, such as listed heritage items, overlays and hazard areas and the location of designations. These features have implications on what is permitted or not.
The district plan also sets out the objectives and policies for each area. These are general statements which Council sets out to identify their general aim for activities in particular areas.
District plans can divide activities into six different categories, starting from the most permissive (and accordingly the easiest to undertake) to the least permissive (and accordingly, harder to obtain):
If a proposal complies with the suite of policies and rules in the District Plan, then no resource consent is needed. The way the Resource Management Act (RMA) is set up, a resource consent application is only needed when there are breaches to the District Plan.
To obtain a resource consent, an application on the statutory form needs to be provided along with an Assessment of Environmental Effects, and plans illustrating the proposal.
Some things you want to do can affect your neighbours in a negative way. For example, if you block out too much of their light, store or use hazardous chemicals, create too much demand for parking or make too much noise. This is why we have rules in our District Plan to control what we do on our land. The rules are specific to each city, and then to each zone within that city.
You can get approval in a couple of ways, under the RMA, for a development or activity:
There are three ways resource consents can be processed once it hits the Council. This depends upon the rules in the District Plan and the details of the proposal. These are:
Notification has a significant impact on the consent processing timeframe and costs.
A public hearing is usually held to give applicants and submitters a chance to speak, and informal pre-hearing meetings may also be held.
Whereas, a non-notified application should take 20 working days (approximately one month), fully notified applications take 130 working days (approximately six months), and limited notified applications take 100 working days (approximately four and a half months).
If notified, submitters can be involved in the hearing and they have appeal rights to the Environment Court. Having a consent appealed, can cost a further 8-18 months in time and as the Environment Court rehears the entire matter, it also adds significantly to cost.
If it is not notified, the only person with an appeal right is the applicant.
The only way to challenge a non-notification decision is through a High Court judicial review.
When considering any application for resource consent the consent authority must have regard to:
Each of these issues will be addressed in any resource consent.
The two issues that usually raise the most comment are the effects and the relevant District Plan provisions.
The Council planner’s assessment of the effects of a proposal starts from the “permitted baseline”. Each resource consent application is decided on its merits with consideration given to what is proposed, the context of the site and the surrounding area and what is provided for by the District Plan. What the District Plan provides for as potential permitted development is particularly relevant to the notification assessment as it provides a baseline for comparing the effects of a proposed development.
In effect, what happens with an application is:
If the Council considers that there is not enough information to determine an application they can request further information (or reject the application altogether). If further information is requested, then the application is suspended until that information is received by Council.
The planner makes this decision once they have reviewed all the information provided by the applicant, commissioned any expert reports and received any further information they have requested from the applicant.
The test is a legal one, set out in the Resource Management Act.
The RMA test for whether someone is an affected person is whether the proposal has adverse effects on them that are ‘minor or more than minor, (but are not less than minor)’.
The RMA and associated case law also specifies how the council decides whether there are any affected persons. For example, when making the decision, the planner may disregard an adverse effect of the activity on the person if a rule in a plan or a national environmental standard permits an activity with that effect (the 'permitted baseline' – that is, what can be built without a requiring a resource consent).
If the council decides that the adverse effects on the wider environment will be no more than minor and that there will be no adversely affected persons (or where all affected persons have given their written approval), the application will usually be ‘non-notified’. The only exceptions being if the applicant requests full notification, the council considers that special circumstances warrant full notification, or a rule in a district/regional plan or national environmental standard requires public notification.
The planners may also disregard an adverse effect if a rule or national environmental standard permits an activity with that effect, and in the case of controlled or restricted discretionary activities, where an effect does not relate to a matter over which control or discretion has been reserved.
Just because some people and organisations may have an interest in a proposal, it does not mean they may be affected. Case law has shown that an affected person is one who is 'affected in a manner different from the public generally'. Being 'interested' in a manner different from the public does not make a person “affected”.
The conditions relate to mitigating the effects of the development on the environment; for example, requiring landscaping to avoid visual effects.
The Council cannot withdraw a resource consent - once it has been decided, it is here to stay. If you think that due process has not been followed, then you can apply for a judicial review via the High Court.
A RMA Monitoring and Enforcement Officer checks every single development that has a resource consent to make sure it is in line with the approval. They also check that consent conditions are complied with.
If the resource consent conditions are not met, the Council can undertake appropriate action. This ranges from a formal warning, an abatement notice to cease work or an infringement notice.The determination as to which method is used is based on the severity of the effects on the environment.
If someone is concerned about a development near them, they can call or email an enforcement officer (enforcement@huttcity.govt.nz), and they will research it and come and have a look. They always get back to the complainant, and the complainants details are kept confidential.
Lower Hutt has insufficient housing to meet the needs of its residents.
Plan Change 43 seeks to allow more infill development across certain areas in the city. In doing so, it will change our residential neighbourhoods by increasing the density. Change like this can be distressing for people. This change needs to be balanced against the housing shortage in Lower Hutt and a growing homeless problem.
The recent National Policy Statement for Urban Development directs Councils to remove minimum parking standards from District Plans. As a result of this, very soon no carparking spaces will be required for development in the city. This may mean there are more vehicles parked on the street. As long as they are parked legally and registered and warranted, this is allowed. Any illegal parking can be checked by our parking officers.