Land use consents: for activities that involve constructing or altering bores, using or disturbing a river bed or lake bed, or soil disturbances
Discharge permits: for activities that involve discharging a contaminant or water into water, discharging a contaminant onto or into land, or into air
Water permits: for activities that involve taking, damming or diverting water
Coastal permits: for activities in the coastal marine area.
City and District Councils deal with consents for other activities, such as subdivision consents and building permits.
Activities that need resource consent are classified ascontrolled, restricted discretionary, discretionaryandnon-complyingin ourregional plans. OurRegional Plan User Guide provides helpful guidance for you to see if your activity requires a resource consent.
If you are unsure about whether your activity needs resource consent, pleasecontact us.
There is an initial fee when applying for a resource consent. Once a resource consent has been approved, there are also monitoring charges as well.
Some activities are classified aspermitted. Permitted activities are allowed without resource consent provided that conditions specified in the GWRC regional plan rule for that activity are complied with.
All permitted activities can be found by checking the rules in ourregional plans.
If you are unsure about whether your activity is considered a permitted activity, pleasecontact us.
Feel free to talk to us before you apply for a resource consent. We can check you are applying for the right type of consent and that you include enough information to avoid unnecessary delays.
You can have up to four hours of free pre-application advice at our offices. If you can't visit any of our offices, we can also offer advice by telephone or email. To arrange a pre-application meeting, call 0800 496734or emailinfo@gw.govt.nz.
When you are organising a pre-application meeting, do not forget to:
Tell us what works/activity you would like to discuss; and
Bring any professional advisors (such as planners or engineers) that may be assisting you to the meeting.