Resource consents

Introduction | When a resource consent is needed | Resource consent process | Applying for a consent | Streamlined application process | Publicly notified consents | Making a submission | Hearings | If your approval is needed | Monitoring resource consents | Certificate of compliance | Environmental fines

If your approval is needed

• Giving your approval
• Can I change the proposal?
• What if I don't approve?

Giving your approval

If we consider you to be adversely affected by activities proposed in a resource consent application, it's the responsibility of the applicant to seek your written approval to the proposed activity.

This means that the applicant (or someone acting on their behalf) must contact you and ask you to sign, and print your name and date:

• plans outlining the proposed activity, and/or
• a letter giving your consent.

They are entitled to contact you in person.

It is your responsibility to make sure you understand why your approval is being sought, and what effect the proposed activity will have on you and your property. It is your right to:

• question the applicant about the proposed activity, and
• seek further information about the resource consent process - and your part in it - from the relevant local authority or planning consultant or solicitor.

Auckland City Council cannot advise you if you should or shouldn't give your approval but it can provide information on the resource consent process. You should seek independent advice if you are not sure whether you should provide your written approval to the proposal or development.

You do have the right to withdraw or take back your approval at any time before the decision is made. We will then consider any adverse effects that may affect you or your property. If an earlier decision was made not to notify the application as a result of you giving your approval, and that approval has now been withdrawn, then it is likely that the application will now need to be notified.

Can I change the proposal?

You are entitled to discuss the application with the applicant and seek out possible solutions to any concerns you may have. The applicant may be willing to negotiate and change their proposal to reduce its impact on you.

Auckland City Council only accepts unconditional approval from affected persons so you cannot make changes to the proposed activity by giving conditional or partial consent. Any changes to the proposal must be incorporated into the plans and application.

Private agreements outside the scope of the resource consent application are sometimes entered into, but as these are private we have no power to enforce or monitor them.

What if I don't approve?

If written approval from all adversely affected persons isn't obtained, or if the environmental effects of the proposed activity are potentially more than minor, then the application will be either publicly notified or notice of the application will be served on whoever did not provide written approval. This means that you will have the opportunity to formally lodge a submission to the proposed activity through the submission process. 

If you want to take your time to consider the proposal it is worth noting that there is no legal timeframe for giving written approval. If an applicant asks you to sign by a specified date it is usually for their own convenience or requirement.

Reviewed April 2008