Welcome to 2022!

Proposed District Plan (PDP) – Decisions released

Waikato District Council notified the decisions on the Proposed District Plan (PDP) last month (Monday 17 January) following an eight year review process.

The consents team have been awaiting the decisions on this plan for some time, and like the public, did not have access to the decisions until Monday 17 January. The consents team are celebrating this significant milestone, whilst digesting the content of the decisions. We will continue to process resource consents and provide our duty planning and pre-application services while we become familiar with the new provisions. This will mean that delivery of service will take longer than usual, and we appreciate your patience during this formative period.

We understand that you will also be digesting the new provisions of the PDP to understand how they may affect your work.  If you haven't already done so, we strongly encourage you to read the full decisions of the Proposed District Plan, which you can read here.

Resource Consent Applications

From 17 January 2022, any application lodged with Council will need to be assessed under both the Operative District Plan and the decisions version of the Proposed District Plan which is required by the Resource Management Act.

Applications lodged from 17 January 2022 are also required to include a PDP assessment. This means that if this information is missing Council may place your application on hold, request further information, extend deadlines or in some cases return an application, all necessary for the application to be assessed accurately under both the Operative and Proposed District Plans.

You should also expect that applications lodged from 17 January 2022 will take longer than usual to process as staff undertake assessments of proposals against both the Operative District Plan and the decisions version of the PDP.

Duty Planning

From 17 January 2022, any development or subdivision will need to be assessed under both the Operative and decisions version of the Proposed District Plan. Our Duty Planning staff are taking additional time to understand the new provisions in the PDP so that information is provided on both plans. This will result in us taking longer to respond to customer requests for duty planning. If you contact our Duty Planning service, we appreciate your patience in this situation.

Pre-Applications

As above, from 17 January 2022, our pre-application service will need to include advice and information on provisions of both the Operative and decisions version of the Proposed District Plan. Our Planning staff are taking additional time to understand the new provisions in the PDP so that our pre-application service reflect its requirements. This will result in us taking longer to complete our pre-application services. If you do lodge a pre-application request, we appreciate your patience and understanding with this change in Council’s relevant planning documents.

The Waikato District and entirety of New Zealand is at ‘Red’ status, and this will continue to impact the ways we interact with customers.

• Duty Planner: No meetings in-person until further notice. We will contact you by phone or email.
• Pre-application meetings: Due to high workloads, as of 10th January 2022 pre-apps will only have written advice circulated. An electronic meeting/phone call may occur but this will be case by case and at the discretion of the assigned planner.
• “Contactless” site visits/inspections will continue.
• All other consent processing will continue remotely.