FAQs

Good question!  Civitas is a Latin word.  We’ve heard it pronounced “Siv-i-tas”, “Siv-ee-tas”, “Chiv-i-tas” and ”Kee-wi-tahs”. 

Online pronunciation guides tend to go for one of the first two.  People we know who have learnt Latin tend to go for the last one.  

We like the sound of “Kee-wi-tahs” because, well, we’re Kiwis after all; but we won’t be offended it you say it one of the other ways.

Contact Us Contact Us

In the late Roman Republic, the civitas was the collective body of all of the cives (citizens) of a place and the social contract binding them together. 

Over the centuries, usage of the word broadened – it could refer to the collective body of the citizens, or the place itself, and the word was often incorporated into the name of a place. 

We chose the word for our consultancy because planning mediates between the citizens of a place and relies for its efficacy and acceptance not just on the laws of the place but also the social contracts binding the people of the place.

Contact Us Contact Us

Planning consultants undertake a wide range of tasks including:

• Assessing the land use and development potential of a site (e.g. can I build apartments here?  And, if so, how high?).
• Preparing applications for resource consent (e.g. to use, develop or subdivide land), including the preparation of the associated Assessments of Environmental Effects.
• Preparing notices of requirement for designations and outline plans of work for land subject to designations (on behalf of requiring authorities).
• Preparing district, regional and unitary plans (or parts thereof) and plan changes on behalf of local authorities (i.e. your local council).
• Preparing submissions in support or opposition to notified resource consent applications, notices of requirement, plans and plan changes.
• Managing public consultation on all the above.
• Presentation of expert evidence on all the above.

Most consultants will specialize in either development-related work or policy work.

Contact Us Contact Us

A resource consent is an approval from your local council under the Resource Management Act to use, develop or subdivide a resource (typically land or water) in a certain way.  Resource consents may also be granted to discharge contaminants.

For example, you may be granted resource consent to use your property for a certain activity (e.g. medical clinic); to redevelop your property for apartments; to subdivide your land to create extra sites; or to discharge stormwater from your site.

Resource consents are different to building consents.  A building consent is an approval under the Building Act to construct, alter, demolish or remove a building.  It certifies that your project complies with the Building Act (the main law governing building work) and the Building Code (which sets out performance standards for building work, including standards for structural stability, fire safety and durability).

Contact Us Contact Us

That depends on your local district plan and regional plan, or your local unitary plan (a unitary plan is a combined district and regional plan). 

Every plan is different but you might need a resource consent for any number of things including:

• A new building;
• Additions or alterations to a building;
• Demolition of a building (e.g. if the building has heritage value);
• A change in the use of a property (e.g. from residential to commercial);
• Site works (e.g. earthworks or tree removal);
• The discharge of stormwater from impervious areas;
• Works in the bed of a stream or the coastal marine area;
• Work on a contaminated site.

Contact Us Contact Us

You need to review your local district plan and regional plan, or your local unitary plan (combined district and regional plan).    

These plans are typically large and complex documents.  You can find them on the relevant council websites.  However, you may need help to navigate them. 

Most councils will give you 15-30 minutes of free advice to help you to work out if you need resource consent.  If that is not sufficient time, you can request a “pre-application meeting” with your local council.  Your council will charge you for this meeting.  Alternatively, you can engage a planning consultant to review your proposal for you.

Contact Us Contact Us

You will need to prepare an application containing the information specified in the relevant parts of the Resource Management Act (“RMA”) and your local district, regional or unitary plan.

This will need to include an Assessment of Environmental Effects (“AEE”).  Amongst other things, this will need to:

• Identify the matters requiring consent;
• Assess the potential effects of the proposal on the environment;
• Assess the proposal against the relevant objectives, policies, rules, standards and assessment criteria of the relevant plan(s); and
• Outline any consultation undertaken for the application, the views of those consulted and your response to any concerns expressed by them.

You should also provide an assessment against the notification provisions of the RMA, to help guide the council in its decision making.

As a general rule, your application should be prepared to a level of detail that corresponds to the scale and significance of the proposal and its effects.  Detailed information should not be necessary for minor activities with only minor environmental effects.  However, where a proposal has the potential for significant effects, a comprehensive AEE is expected.

You need to lodge your application with your local council.

Contact Us Contact Us

That depends on lots of things, including what you need consent for; the range of specialist inputs necessary to assess the application; whether the application is broadly consistent with what your local plan is seeking; how the application is processed (e.g. non-notified, limited notified or publicly notified); and whether anyone opposes the application. 

Councils are supposed to process non-notified resource consents within 20 working days (approximately 1 calendar month) of lodgment.  However, the ability to put applications on hold (by requesting further information), and to extend the statutory timeframes for other reasons, means most applications take longer than that in practice. 

Where an application is processed on a notified or limited notified basis, the process typically takes 6-9 months.

Contact Us Contact Us

That depends on lots of things, including what you need consent for; the range of specialist inputs necessary to assess the application; whether the application is broadly consistent with what your local plan is seeking; how the application is processed (e.g. non-notified, limited notified or publicly notified); and whether anyone opposes the application.  

As a consequence, costs to prepare an application can be anything from a few thousand dollars for a simple non-notified application to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a complex or controversial notified application.

You will also need to pay the council's costs to process the application. Your council will typically charge you on a time basis for processing the application (just like a consultant).

Contact Us Contact Us

It is important to distinguish between the date on which a resource consent lapses and the date on which it expires.

A resource consent typically lapses after 5 years (although a different period may be specified in a consent), if it is not “given effect to” by then.

Hence, the lapsing period is the period between the grant of the resource consent and the point at which you give effect to the consent (e.g. by undertaking the activity approved in the consent). 

Note that there is often room for debate about when a consent is “given effect to” – like most things in planning, it’s not as straightforward as you might think – but that's a discussion for another day.

For some consents, the Council may also specify a duration, or date on which the consent expires.  The duration or expiry date is only relevant once you have given effect to the consent.  It is the date on which you must, after giving effect to the consent, stop giving effect to the consent (i.e. stop doing the activity approved in the consent). 

So, for example, you may be granted resource consent to construct a jetty, and that consent may have a lapsing period of 5 years and a duration of 35 years.  This means you have 5 years to give effect to the consent (e.g. build the jetty).  You have a total of 35 years to make use of the jetty.  After 35 years, you must remove the jetty or apply for a new resource consent.

All resource consents have a lapsing period, however, not all resource consents specify a duration or expiry date.  Land use and subdivision consents typically don’t have a duration.  Coastal, water and discharge consents do.

Contact Us Contact Us

Yes, if you haven’t given effect to your consent, you can apply to extend the lapsing period, however, you must do that before the consent lapses. Usually, that means applying within 5 years of the consent being granted.

In assessing your application, the Council will take into account:

• Whether substantial progress or effort has been, and continues to be, made towards giving effect to the consent;
• Whether you have obtained approval from persons who may be adversely affected by the granting of an extension; and
• The effect of the extension on the objectives and policies of any plan or proposed plan (e.g. your local district plan).

You cannot apply to extend the duration of a resource consent (see the discussion under the separate question above for the difference between the lapsing period and duration of a consent).

Contact Us Contact Us

Yes, you can apply to change or delete any condition of consent other than a condition relating to the duration of a consent.

An application to change or delete a condition of consent goes through the same process as an application for a new consent, however, the council can only assess the effects of the change(s) you are proposing – the application is not an opportunity for the council to revisit the merits of the whole activity.

Contact Us Contact Us

Yes, a resource consent can be canceled (by your local council) by written notice served on the consent holder if the resource consent has not been exercised during the preceding 5 years.

The conditions applying to a consent may also be reviewed in certain circumstances.

Contact Us Contact Us

Yes, anyone can lodge an application for a private plan change to rezone their property but it is a lengthy and expensive process. 

A few things to bear in mind:

• You can apply for a private plan change at any time but it cannot take effect until the plan you are seeking to change is operative.
• Plan change applications are processed on a “limited notified” or “publicly notified” basis so that potentially affected parties can submit.
• Plan change applications typically take 9-12 months for councils to process.  Complicated or controversial changes generally take longer.
• The council’s decision on your plan change can be appealed to the Environment Court by you or any submitter, adding further time and cost to the process.
• You will generally need to cover the council’s costs in processing the application in addition to your own costs in preparing the application. These may be substantial.