Engineering applications

Lodge an engineering application | Engineering plan approvals | Engineering bonds | Local Government Act (LGA) approvals | Building over public drains

Engineering plan approvals

Engineering approvals give permission for civil engineering works for infrastructure that will be vested to council, ie. infrastructure that will become 'public' and under the control and responsibility of council.

Works are usually undertaken by private property owners and developers in order to facilitate their development and are often required as a condition of a resource consent for subdivision or land use, or for a building consent.

Engineering approvals may also be approved as a stand-alone application.

There are three parts to the engineering approval process:

• the initial approval or consent
• construction work
• engineering inspections and asbuilting of the works after completion.

All three stages need to be completed to the council's satisfaction before the works are vested in council.

Fees and invoicing

Three separate invoices are generated at three stages of the process:

1. At lodgement

A deposit is lodged with an engineering application for the creation of public infrastructure. The amount is dependant on the scale of the works as indicated on the application form. An invoice is generated for the deposit amount and forwarded to the applicant with the receipt.

2. At processing

The lodged application goes to an engineer to be processed. The engineer will assess whether the proposal is technically feasible and complies with council requirements. Once the engineer is satisfied that all required information has been provided, consent is granted and a second invoice is created. This invoice accounts for the actual costs of processing incurred by the council. This second invoice must be paid before the approved consent can be collected from council.

3. When the asset is vested to council

The consent holder undertakes construction of the approved works and a council engineer will carry out inspections.

Once all construction and inspections are completed, the consent holder provides asbuilt drawings of the works to a council engineer. A third invoice is sent to the consent holder for inspections and for the handover of the assets to council. When the invoice is paid, the asbuilt drawings are loaded into the councils computer systems and these become available as public drainage maps.

Updated May 2009