Resource Consents draft landing page

You’ll need a resource consent if you’re subdividing, or doing a project that falls outside what’s allowed in the District Plan. We provide some free advice on where you stand.

What is a resource consent?

A resource consent gives you permission to carry out an activity that may affect the environment or your community and is not allowed as of right in the Porirua City District Plan. Our District Plan is governed by the Resource Management Act (RMA). For projects involving subdivision or land development with building work, you will need a resource consent for the overall activity and a building consent for the building work.

Types of resource consent

There are five different types of resource consent. Porirua City Council issues two types:

  • land use
  • subdivisions.

Greater Wellington Regional Council issues the other three:

  • discharges to air land and water
  • coastal permits for coastal and marine area activities.
  • water permits for activities involving water taken from streams or bores, or using or diverting rivers, streams, waterways or lakes.

Visit Greater Wellington Regional Council – Resource Consents web page for more information.

Resource consent notifications

When we receive your resource consent application, we will decide whether other people or organisations need to be consulted about the project. This determines how the application will be processed and how long it will take.

We sort applications into three categories:

  • publicly notified – the public needs to know about your project
  • limited notification – the people affected by your project need to be told about it
  • non-notified – is not considered to affect others, or if it does, you’ve already gained their written approval.

If your resource consent application needs to be notified, you’ll be told what to do. You can carry out the consultation yourself or employ a consultant to do it for you.

Read the RMA guide to consultation for resource consent applicants

How to find out if you need a resource consent – pre-application meetings

We want to save you time and worry and our planners will be able to answer general questions about the District Plan or whether resource consent is needed for your project.

There are two types of pre-application meetings.

  1. A standard pre-application meeting – the first two hours of advice are free.
  2. A comprehensive pre-application meeting – charges will apply beyond two hours.

Standard pre-application meeting
This meeting is for you and/or your agent to get preliminary advice from Council experts on the technical requirements of your proposal, based on the information you've provided. The first two hours of advice are free. Beyond that charges will apply and you will need to apply for a comprehensive pre-application meeting request.

So we can make the most of your two free hours' advice, fill out the Resource consent pre-application meeting request [link needed]

Arrange a standard pre-application meeting

Fill out the Resource consent standard pre-application meeting request [form to upload]
Simply phone us on (04) 237 5089, or come to our Customer Services Centre at 16 Cobham Court, Porirua. You can also contact the duty planner via email [email protected].

After an initial assessment of your application, we may determine that a comprehensive pre-application meeting is needed and ask you to submit the same details online via the MyPorirua customer portal.

Note on advice provided: the views expressed by Council staff during a pre-application meeting are preliminary views of the officers present, made in good faith, and are based on the information you provide at the time of the meeting. Meetings are confidential, but we may have to disclose any information provided if another person requests it under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

Comprehensive pre-application meetings

For a pre-application meeting, charges will apply beyond two hours of officer time.

There are two ways to apply:

  1. Online through the MyPorirua customer portal.
    You will be allocated a reference number ‘PRE’ for file management, tracking and invoicing purposes.
  2. Fill out the Resource consent standard pre-application meeting request [form to upload]
    Note: once your meeting request has been vetted, we may ask you to submit the same details online via the MyPorirua customer portal.

How does this differ from a standard pre-application meeting?

Multiple officers will be involved, and we may visit your proposed development site, meet with you to discuss possible issues, potential affected parties and mitigations, and multiple meetings may be required.

Basis of charges for advice

Charges are per Council officer for in-depth meetings to ensure we offer you tailored advice and guidance at the highest quality possible. This covers the time spent preparing for the meeting, at the meeting, documenting and peer reviewing our advice, and visiting the site, if requested. The costs of external resource / specialist consultants, for example consultant planners, urban designers and landscape architects, are passed on at their actual cost (as a disbursement).

You'll be sent an invoice and meeting notes after the meeting.

Note on advice provided: the views expressed by Council staff during a pre-application meeting are preliminary views of the officers present, made in good faith, and are based on the information you provide at the time of the meeting. Meetings are confidential, but we may have to disclose any information provided if another person requests it under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

The more details that can be provided prior to the meeting, the better. Please send all relevant documents through with your application form when submitting. This will help make the pre-application meeting more worthwhile as Council officers can be better prepared.

Helpful information or documents may include:

  • A site plan (ideally to a metric scale (scale must be stated eg 1:100), electronic copies of all maps, photographs, scheme plans, or elevations of the proposed development where appropriate. Architectural drawings and other material to assist staff to understand your proposal. A description of all existing buildings and their uses is important.
  • Any special feature(s) you know about the site, including legal interests, covenants, easements or right of ways, native vegetation (whether or not Significant Natural Areas), streams and water courses, wetlands, archaeological, heritage items, contamination, topography, etc
  • Any specific issues you wish to discuss, including clarification of the District Plan rules, policies, resource consent requirements, engineering, roading, drainage, Building Act, Building Code requirements.

The planner will not take minutes, but we are happy to be sent a copy of your notes/minutes for review and comment by email after the meeting. Specific pre-application feedback and guidance can be requested from technical advisors on request.

Explanation of officer rates

Rates are not dependent on the experience level of the processing officer. Applicants are entitled to the same quality and timeliness of service independent of the officer’s experience. Chargeable hours are adjusted downwards accordingly for less experienced staff, such that learning and mentoring required is not charged for. It’s not considered equitable to charge a higher rate purely because a more experienced staff member is processing their application when the chargeable time involved in the same.

Recovery time spent on pre-application – discussions, assessment and feedback

Council’s Policy for administrative charges under the Resource Management Act 1991 states that advice provided by Council officers prior to an application being received may be charged for after the second hour at the relevant hourly rate that applies for that particular financial year as contained within the schedule of administrative charges under the Resource Management Act 1991.

Apply for a resource consent

Resource consent forms, info and resources are below. What you will need will depend on the type of work your applying for consent for and who and what it will affect.

Application process and timing

We require an application fee to be paid in order to lodge and process your application (in accordance with Section 36AAB(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991).

An invoice will be generated once your resource consent application has been received and will be sent directly to the nominated payer for payment.

Once paid, we will start processing your application.

If your application is straight forward and non-notified (it doesn’t need to involve other people or organisations), it takes up to 20 working days to process from the time we accept it and receive your application fee.

We’ll contact you if we need more information to process your application. If this happens, the 20-day clock will be paused until we receive what we need.

Notified applications (those that could affect other people or the public) will take longer, to give people time to respond. More time is required if there are submissions or objections to an application and a hearing is needed.

Submitting your application

Resource consent applications can be submitted online via the MyPorirua customer portal, or by using an Application for resource consent – Form 9 (along with any supporting forms or information needed) .

If you submit a hard copy of your resource consent application, we require two copies of your application, supporting documents, and originals of all plans.

You will need a verified MyPorirua user account in order to submit your application. The verification process can take up to 2–3 working days to complete and you will be notified once your account is verified. In the meantime – any applications you have started will be saved as drafts under your login details.

Once you are set up, simply log in in to MyPorirua and select Do it online. You will see a range of resource consent application forms available. Select the appropriate form, enter the information requested and upload any documents required. As this is not a full application form, you will still need to upload your Form 9 application form and any other documentation to support your application. Once submitted, you can either pay immediately with a credit card or a copy of the application fee invoice be sent to you directly for payment.

You can bring your application in person to:

  • Porirua City Customer Services Centre
    16 Cobham Court
    Porirua

We’ll go through your checklist, and take your deposit if everything’s in order.
We need three copies of your application, supporting documents, and originals of all plans.If it hasn’t got everything, we may need to reject your application.

We’ll go through your checklist, and take your deposit if everything’s in order.
We need three copies of your application, supporting documents, and originals of all plans. Send your application by post or courier to:

  • Resource Consents
    Porirua City Council
    PO Box 50218
    Porirua 5240

If it hasn’t got everything, we may need to reject your application.

You can save time by bringing your application in to us.

Fees – what it will cost

You need to pay an application fee when you submit your application. When we finish processing your application, we will invoice you for any extra costs.

There is an hourly charge for any extra time needed to process an application beyond the value of the application fee. You may also be charged for the time we spend providing advice to you before we receive your application, if it is longer than two hours. 

Technical processing/advice $233.00
Administration $164.00
External specialist advice (note 4) Actual cost
Minor land use application (note 5) $1,162.00
All other non-notified land use applications $2,331.00
Non-notified subdivision applications $2,331.00
Non-notified land use and subdivision applications $3,486.00
Additional (per hour) $233.00
Limited notified land use application $6,983.00
Limited notified subdivision application $6,983.00
Limited notified land use & subdivision applications $6,983.00
Publicly notified land use application $13,944.00
Publicly notified subdivision application $13,944.00
Publicly notified land use & subdivision applications $13,944.00
Per inspection (note 6) – including permitted activity monitoring $233.00
Additional (inspection) $233.00
Existing use certificate $1,162.00
Certificate of Compliance $1,162.00
Applications for new designations (note 7) $11,624.00
Applications to alter existing designations - s181(2) $11,624.00
Applications to alter existing designations - s181(3) $1,162.00
Consideration of outline plans $1,162.00
Outline plan waivers $464.00
Extensions to designations $1,162.00
Removal of designations under s182 (note 8) $1,162.00
Applications for new heritage orders s189 $11,624.00
Applications to alter existing heritage orders - s192 ref to s181(2) $11,624.00
Applications to alter existing heritage orders - s192 ref to s181(3) $1,162.00
Removal of heritage orders - s196 $1,162.00
Section 10 waivers $233.00
Section 37 waivers $233.00
Section 125 extensions of time $698.00
Section 126 cancellation of conditions $698.00
Section 127 change of conditions $1,162.00
Section 128 condition review $698.00
Section 221 consent notices $698.00
Section 222 completion certificates $233.00
Section 223 certificate $464.00
Section 224 certificate $929.00
Section 223 and s224(c)/(f) jointly $1,162.00
Section 225 certificate $464.00
Section 226 certificate $233.00
Section 240 cancel covenant $233.00
Section 241 amalgamation $233.00
Section 243 certificate $233.00
Bond preparation and release $233.00
Section 348 Local Govt Act certification alone $233.00
Overseas Investment Certificate $233.00
Removal of building line(s) $233.00
Permitted Boundary Activity Notice $698.00
Activities meeting certain requirements are
permitted activities 		$698.00
Signing of easement instruments and other legal documents (note 10) $233.00
Engineering approval $466.00
$233.00
Hearing commissioner/s (requested by the applicant) Actual cost
Hearing commissioner/s (where not requested by the applicant) Actual cost
Councillor attendance at hearings for hearings, district plan changes, designations, heritage orders: Chair per hour $126.00
Councillor attendance at hearings for hearings, district plan changes, designations, heritage orders: Members per hour $102.00
Advertising and public notification Road Corridor Access Request (CAR) Actual cost
Private plan change request deposit – (note 9) $11,907.00

Note 4: Consultant's and legal fees associated with the processing of a consent, certificate, designation, or private plan change (including specialist technical or legal advice); or where a consent involves creating legal instruments, will be charged at cost and recovered in full.
Note 5: Minor land use application means an application for a land-use activity (excluding non-residential activities in the suburban zone) that:

  • in the residential zones, does not comply with the permitted activity standards; or
  • in the rural zones, is a controlled activity; and
  • for which applicants provide evidence of consultation in accordance with the fourth schedule of the Resource Management Act 1991.

Note 6: The monitoring charge becomes payable upon granting of resource consent, and/or confirmation of a requirement for designation. In addition, the Council will recover additional costs from the consent holder for officer time should more than one inspection and associated activities be required, based on the ‘officer time hourly rate’.

Note 7: This charge does not apply to applications for existing designations to be rolled over at a time of plan review.

Note 8: This charge applies to recovering costs associated with removing a designation, or part of a designation, from the District Plan planning maps and text and updating these documents.

Note 9: The full and actual costs of processing any private plan change request shall be recovered. If the Council does not have in-house capacity and or/expertise to assess, process and/or report on all or any part of the private plan change request, it will advise the applicant and seek to engage an appropriate external consultant(s) to fulfil this function. Where this occurs, the Council will advise the applicant of its preferred consultant and any associated quote for costs. Should the applicant choose to proceed with the application, the Council will recover the full actual and reasonable costs of any engaged consultant(s). All private plan change requests will require the payment of an initial deposit.

The initial deposit covers:

  • the initial decision to accept or adopt the plan in whole or in part;
  • notification and mail-out costs; the processing of submissions;
  • the preparation of any officers report; and
  • costs associated with hearings and decisions, providing that the deposit only covers the plan change application process to the extent that the additional per hour rate and/or the Council's actual costs are more than deposit, then the additional costs for any engaged consultant(s), do not exceed the deposit. If the Council's actual costs are more than the deposit, then the additional costs shall be recovered in full or as agreed with the applicant.

Important: the Council also retains the right to withhold the public notification of any accepted private plan change and/or the notification of an operative date for any private plan change until all actual costs associated with processing, assessment, reporting and any hearing on the private plan change have been settled and paid in full.

Note 10: The full costs will be charged for the chair and up to two committee members’ involvement (a total of three councillors) in hearings for plan changes and notified resource consents. The level of the charge will be based on the attendance fees for councillors prescribed by legislation, and may include additional time spent by councillors in formal pre-hearing meetings, formal committee deliberations and at formal site inspections as part of a group inspection or as part of a pre-hearing meeting. The costs of councillor involvement in hearings for Council-adopted plan changes; or designations and heritage orders under Part 8 of the Resource Management Act will not be recovered.

Note 11: In accordance with clause 11.6 of the Porirua City Reserves Management Plan, all additional costs (including but not limited to legal, planning and surveying costs) must be met by the applicant.

Contact us

General enquiries

For any general enquiries, you can contact the duty planner on (04) 237 5089 or email [email protected]

Get in touch:

+64 4 237 5089

[email protected]

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