Experience Area B - Concept, Preliminary & Developed Design

Question 1

How do you know if Resource Consent is required on a site?

Answer 1

Auckland: Refer to Auckland Unitary Plan which will have information on which activities are Permitted, Controlled, Restricted Discretionary, Discretionary, Non-Complying, Prohibited.

Question 2

What are meanings/ consequences of the types of activities within the Auckland Unitary Plan: Permitted; Controlled; Restricted Discretionary; Discretionary; Non-Complying; Prohibited

Answer 2

Permitted: No Resource Consent Required. Certificate of Compliance issued(? - need to check what this is..)

Controlled: Apply for Resource Consent, complete Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE), Should be processed in 20 days, always approved so long as it complies, can fast track - 10 days

Restricted Discretionary: Apply for Resource Consent, Complete AEE, conditions will be set, can be notified, can be rejected

Discretionary: Apply for RC, Complete AEE, can be notified

Non-Complying: Apply for RC, Complete AEE, often notified, need to provde scheme is not inconsistent with intent of district scheme

Prohibited: Cannot apply for RC

Question 3

What are the types of notification for RC applications?

Answer 3

Non- Notified: No public notice

Limited Notification: Council assess and make judgement on impact of activity minor or major. Require notification to the immediate affected parties to sign off if major. ie: neighbours on property boundary

Public notification: Impact seen by council as more than minor on the environment, allows public to submit submissions and hearing heard in public domain

Question 4

What should the Architect do if the client wants a design or scheme that requires notification?

Answer 4

Communicate implications of notification. There will be time costs, financial costs as notified RC may require additional information be provided by various consultants which was not part of their original scope of works. It may need to go to a hearing, which is also costly for reasons described above.

If limited notification will need to approach neighbours for sign-off. It may be neighbours do not sign-off on the scheme. Do have ability to apply for RC and let local authority assess impact on affected parties.

Could also change the design so that it complies

Question 5

What is the Resource Management Act (RMA)?

Answer 5

Promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air, water and is administered by the territorial authority whose jurisdiction is regulated by the unitary plan.

All buildings must comply with the RMA

There are different types of consents given under the RMA (land use, subdivision, air use, water, discharge)

Question 6

What is an AEE?

Answer 6

An Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE) is a statement about the effects of a proposed activity or structure on the environment. Without an AEE a resource consent is considered incomplete, even when there are no effects an AEE is required to explain why.

The RMA requires that an AEE must accompany all resource consent applications. An
AEE is important because it helps the processing planner understand the effects on the
environment. This is helpful when determining aspects of the consent such as potentially
affected parties and conditions of approval. If you do not include an AEE with your resource
consent application then your application will be returned to you. If the information in
your AEE is inadequate then your application will either be returned to you or be subject
to a further information request under Section 92 of the RMA. If this happens then your
application will be placed on hold (i.e the processing of the application will be suspended
until the information is received and accepted).

Question 7

How do you appeal Resource Consent decisions if you disagree with them?

Answer 7

If you are not happy with the decision on your resource consent, you have two options:

1. You can object to the council about the decision (or part of the decision, such as the consent conditions).

2. You can appeal the decision to the Environment Court (however you can't appeal the decision of applications for a boundary activity,  subdivision consent or residential activity – as defined in
section 95A(6) of the RMA – unless these had a non-complying activity status (s120 of the RMA))

Question 8

Who can appeal to the Environment Court with regards to disputed Resource Consents?

Answer 8

Appeals to the Environment Court can be made by:

1. the applicant or consent holder
2. anyone who made a submission