Resource Management and Policy/Planning Fees & Charges

All fees and charges include GST unless otherwise stated

Resource consents

All activities (unless noted otherwise) are charged based on actual cost at the hourly rates noted in the council officer hourly rates - Policy / Planning and Resource Consents section below. The base fees are as follows:

Activity type

Base fee

Hearings for resource consents

Actual costs at hourly rate plus disbursements

Non-notified land use

$2,000

Limited notified land use

$2,500

Publicly notified land use

$3,500

Non-notified subdivision (controlled activity)

$2,000

Non-notified subdivision (other than controlled activity)

 

1-3 lots $2,500

4-7 lots $3,000

8 or more lots $3,400

Notified subdivision

$4,500

Non-notified conjoined land use and subdivision

1-3 lots $2,900
4-7 lots $3,400
8 or more lots $3,800

Notified conjoined land use and subdivision (NEW) $5,000

Signage – land use

$490

Certificates of compliance

$750

Applications for right-of-way easement (s348 Local Government Act 1974)

$750

Permitted boundary activities

Fixed fee $350*

Marginal or temporary activities

$350

Existing use certificates

$715

Outline plan of works

$420

Waiver for requirement for outline plan of works

Fixed fee $300*

Heritage Buildings – alterations and additions of heritage buildings and items (excluding demolition or relocation)

No set base fee for non-notified applications: additional charges will apply for external and specialist inputs if required, including hearing costs

Hearings for resource consent applications

Actual cost at hourly rate plus disbursements

All advertising, consultant and legal fees associated with all work types including assessment of applications (including specialist technical or legal advice) and new Notices of Requirement, designation alterations, removal of designations and District Plan changes.

Actual cost at hourly rate plus disbursements

Monitoring of non-notified and notified land use consents after granting

Actual cost at hourly rate per consent for inspections plus cost of monitoring officer time spent on compliance including site visits

Please note: all land use initial application fees include 1 hour of officer time for monitoring

Variation to conditions (s127 and land use)

$1,200

s128 review if requested

 

Actual cost at hourly rate

Extensions of time (s125)

$1,200

Subdivision certificates

s223 only $300
s224 only  
  • No engineering conditions
$300
  • Engineering conditions included, servicing allotments but not vesting infrastructure
$450
  • Engineering conditions where land/work vesting in council on deposit of plan and inspections have been carried out under NZS4404:2010. Completion inspection will be charged at the engineer hourly rate for all participants. Repeated works completion inspection/approval due to non-compliance will be charged at engineer hourly rate for all participants.
$1,500

Cancellation of building line restrictions

Actual cost at hourly rate

Section 221 change or cancel consent notice

$1,200

Section 226 – separation of title

$1,200

All other certificates $450

* Fixed Fees are non-refundable, and no additional charges will be applied.

Policy/planning

Resource management planning services fees and charges listed below are imposed under the Resource Management Act 1991 to recover the cost to the council for processing applications to designate land and make privately initiated changes to the District Plan.

Section 36 of the Resource Management Act 1991 enables the council to charge additional fees to recover actual and reasonable costs when the fixed fee is inadequate.

Notices of requirement and private plan changes vary in degree of complexity and scope. Applications are therefore charged at the actual and reasonable cost. Consultants’ and solicitors’ fees associated with all work types are also included (see schedule of additional charges below). There may be times where the council refunds part of the fee at its discretion if the work required to process the application is minimal.

The initial application fees specified in the tables below are required up front and no action will be taken in accordance with s36(7) until paid. That does not mean that the council is required to complete the activity upon payment of the fee. The costs incurred will be monitored and additional amounts up to the total of the fixed charge may be required. Then additional charges may also be required before completion of the task if the fixed charges are inadequate to cover the council’s actual and reasonable costs.

Activity type

Base fee

Notices of requirement

$3.500

Amendments to notices of requirement

$2,000

Private plan change requests

$15,000

Note

The fees and charges apply to applications:

  • Relating to a notice of requirement or amendments to or cancellations of a notice of requirement pursuant to s168, s168A, s181, and s182 of the Resource Management Act 1991, but not applications subject to s170 or clause 4 of the First Schedule which shall be processed at no cost to the requiring authority.

Notes

Section 36 of the Resource Management Act 1991 enables the council to charge additional fees. These are fees to recover the actual and reasonable costs incurred where the actual costs exceed the lodgement fee paid. The council will charge the applicable staff charge-out rate together with the costs associated with employing the services of professional consultant, specialist reports or peer reviews where necessary.

Base fees and fixed fees are set at 100% of the average actual and reasonable costs associated with an activity type. Except as required by provisions of the Resource Management Act, refunds of base fees will only be paid where the remaining funds are greater than the administrative cost of providing that refund.

Interim invoices for the processing of resource consents may be generated when costs exceed the base fee paid.

The council will recover actual and reasonable costs associated with any required consent hearing from the applicant.

If at any time the council exceeds the statutory timeframes for processing a resource consent then the council will refund 1% of costs per day that the timeframe was exceeded as per the discount provisions of the Resource Management Act 1991.

Additional Items

The fixed charges do not include other charges that may be imposed under the Resource Management Act 1991 or other legislation, such as:

  • Additional charges
  • Bonds
  • Monitoring and supervision charges expressly provided for in a resource consent

If the fixed charges are not sufficient to meet the council’s actual and reasonable costs then additional charges may be payable in accordance with the attached schedule of additional charges.

The council will finally fix its fees including:

  • Charging the fixed charge or part thereof
  • Charging the fixed charge and additional charges under section 36(3) having regard to the following criteria in section 36(4).

Final charges will be charged at staff hourly rates, technical officer or consultant time and any standard fees applicable.

Monitoring and inspection charges are based on staff hourly rates to complete, with one hour of monitoring taken in at the initial application stage of land use consents.

Schedule of additional charges

The following schedule of charges shall form the basis for calculating any additional charges under section 36(3) in the event that the fixed charges are not sufficient to cover the council’s actual and reasonable costs.

Consultants and solicitors – consultants’ and solicitors’ fees associated with all work types, including the processing of a consent or certificate (including specialist technical or legal advice where a consent involves creating legal instruments), shall be at cost plus disbursement.

Charges for hearings – hearings for all applications shall be at cost of officer’s time per hour rates listed below.

Order papers – the production of order papers shall be at cost plus disbursements.

Council officer hourly rates - Policy / Planning and Resource Consents

The following hourly rates for council officers and decision makers will be charged for the processing of consents, hearings etc. that do not have a fixed charge or where the base fee is inadequate to cover the actual and reasonable costs of the council.

Council officer

Hourly rate

Planning Team leader / Principal Policy Planner

$220

Senior Planner/Senior Policy Planner

$200

Planner/Policy Planner

$180

Graduate Planner/Graduate Policy Planner

$150

Council Technical officer (e.g. infrastructure engineer, heritage advisor, etc.)

$180

Hearing Commissioner

At cost plus disbursements

Consultant and legal fees associated with all work types

At cost plus disbursements

Administration

$130