1. Determine whether you need a Planning Consent for your project.
2. Apply for a Planning Consent. You need to include:
   • Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE).
   • Written approval from affected parties.
   • Other supporting documents (e.g. plans, site elevations, etc).
   • Fee.
3. We determine if your consent requires public notification (including the possibility of limited notification).
4. If your consent is publicly notified we:
   • Run an advertisement about your consent (or contacts those parties directly affected by the proposal).
   • Receive submissions from affected parties.
   • Organise a pre-hearing meeting to try and resolve the issues.
   • Conduct a hearing.
5. Decision by us (which can be appealed).

Development activities tend to generate effects on neighbouring properties and the environment. The District Plan defines the limits of the effects your activity may produce without requiring a consent. You must apply for a Planning Consent when you wish to exceed these limits.

The category that your intended activity falls into will determine whether or not you need to apply for a Planning Consent, and the degree of discretion we have to either restrict or permit your intended activity. In most cases, steps must be taken in order to avoid, remedy or mitigate any adverse or harmful effects on the environment.

The Resource Management Act groups activities that might affect the environment into five categories:

1. Permitted – no Planning Consent is required as the activity meets all the relevant conditions of the District Plan.
2. Controlled – Planning Consent/s are required as the activity does not meet the relevant conditions of the District Plan. The consent authority has no power to decline the Planning Consent.
3. Discretionary – Planning Consent/s are required as the activity does not meet the relevant conditions of the District Plan. The consent authority may grant the Planning Consent with or without conditions or decline the Planning Consent.
4. Restricted discretionary – Planning Consent/s  required as activity does not meet the relevant conditions of the District Plan, the consent authority’s powers to decline a Planning Consent and impose conditions are restricted to matters that have been specified in the District Plan.
5. Non-complying – Planning Consent/s required as activity does not meet relevant conditions of the District Plan. The consent authority may grant the Planning Consent with or without conditions or decline the Planning Consent
6. Prohibited – there are no prohibited activities in the Stratford District Plan.

It's a good idea to talk to us about your plans before your project starts. This may mean you can plan your project in such a way that a Planning Consent may not be required.

Copies of the District Plan are available for viewing here or at council offices.

Choose one of these checklists to go with your application:

Subdivision (Controlled Or Limited Discretionary)
Subdivision (Discretionary)
Mineral Extraction
Indigenous Forest Clearance
Building Relocation
Hazardous Substances
Signs
Discretionary / Non-Complying Activity

Written Approval Form for People Adversly Affected by the Granting of a Planning Consent

Before you lodge your application for a Planning Consent, make sure you clearly understand your intended activity.  What is it exactly that you intend to do? Also, be sure to talk with us and any people who may be affected by your activity, such as neighbours.

The checklists will give you guidance as to the minimum amount and types of information which are required to allow Council to process your application. If information is not supplied then your application may not be processed until the Council is satisfied that it is complete.

Be aware of the time it might take to obtain your Planning Consent. Allow for this in your planning and do not wait for your building consent to be granted before applying for a Planning Consent.

Return the completed application form and the information below to us: 

• The completed application form.
• An Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE).
• Site plans and elevation plans.
• Written approvals from affected parties.
• The deposit. (Further charges may be incurred depending on the time it takes to process the application.)

Fully explain your proposal and what effects it will have so that affected people can assess the environmental effects.

Provide a good quality AEE, which does not underestimate the scope or effects of what is proposed.

Provide good quality plans and elevations clearly showing the areas of non-compliance with the District Plan.

Ensure your application is complete.

Pay your deposit - an application will not be processed until the deposit is received.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?

Council has 20 working days to process a non-notified Planning Consent. Although typically these are completed within 10 working days, an application with incomplete information may take considerably longer.

A certificate of compliance can also be useful when applying for finance. Under Section 139 of the Resource Management Act 1991, a certificate of compliance is deemed to be a Planning Consent.

Section 139 of the RMA 1991

An existing use certificate is required to confirm a right to use land for a use that was lawfully established before the relevant rule in the District Plan became operative or the proposed plan was notified and the effects of the use are the same or similar in character, intensity, and scale to those which existed.

Alternatively an existing use certificate can be issued where the land use was lawfully established by way of a designation and the effects of the use are the same or similar in character, intensity, and scale to those which existed before the designation was removed. Supporting information may be required to determine whether a certificate is issued.

An existing use certificate is different to a certificate of compliance as an existing use may not comply with the current rules of the District Plan.  An existing use certificate is treated as Planning Consent.