FAQ's
Why use a planner? How can Planning Plus® help me?
At Planning Plus® we listen and build relationships with everyone we work with. We are a boutique consultancy – you will know our team and we will know yours. You will not be moved from person to person; we treat you as an individual not a number. We will communicate with you throughout the process so you know what is happening, who is doing what and when.
We are passionate about planning; we choose to be planners because we have enthusiasm for the profession and what can be achieved. We believe in cutting through red tape to get a great outcome, thinking outside the box and working collaboratively.
Our team is highly experienced, knows Council and RMA processes in depth and will provide a personal, professional service at a highly competitive rate. We have a wide network of professional contacts who we have worked with before and trust to provide you with excellent service. We use these contacts to provide you with a seamless service from discussing ideas to implementing the resource consent. We can manage the entire process for you; our aim is to make the process easy and stress-free for you.
We are members of the New Zealand Planning Institute and Hannah is the Secretary of the Auckland Branch Committee. This is the national body representing professional planners in New Zealand. As part of our membership, continuing professional development is required along with compliance with a Code of Conduct. You can be assured that the Planning Plus® team are up to date with current best planning practice, legislation changes and will always act in an honest and ethical manner.
What is a resource consent?
A resource consent is permission to use a resource such as land in a way that contravenes rules in the relevant planning document. There are different categories of resource consents, set up in a hierarchy from controlled activities to non-complying activities. The different types of activities require different assessment.
Not all activities need resource consent. Some buildings and activities are “permitted” under the relevant district and regional plans and can be undertaken without a resource consent. You need a resource consent if you do not meet a rule in the district or regional plan applying to your land. You may also need a resource consent under high level documents such as a National Environmental Standard.
These documents are available online but can be difficult to navigate and even more difficult to find the rules that affect your development.
Our team has extensive planning experience and can assist you with identifying what aspects of your proposal require resource consent, and providing assessment of the environmental effects associated with those. We have a wide network of related professional contacts who have a proven track record. We can utilise these contacts to provide a seamless service to you where their input is needed.
Councils generally charge for the actual cost of providing a service and disbursements. This means that fees vary depending on the type and complexity of the resource consent application. You can find the resource consent deposit fees on the Council websites, but our experience indicates this often does not cover the entire cost of processing the application.
All resource consents come subject to conditions. The conditions vary for each resource consent, but are all legally required to be complied with. At Planning Plus® we can assist you with meeting these conditions and can manage this process for you.
A submission may be in relation to another resource consent application or a new plan/plan change. A submission is your opportunity to communicate with the Council and identify the aspects of the project that you agree with and/or have concerns with and the decision you would like the Council to make.
This is an important process and you need to make sure you get it right. Your submission should include the correct information, assessment and be made in the proper legal format. This is often a process that people seek professional advice with.
A resource consent can involve other specialists such as an engineer, traffic engineer, surveyor or ecologist. At Planning Plus® we have extensive resource management experience and can identify the team of experts that will be needed for your specific proposal. We have a wide network of industry professionals who we know and trust to do an excellent job on your project. We can contact and manage these specialists on your behalf, and can manage the resource consent process for you from conception to obtaining consent and beyond. One of our aims is to make the process as stress-free and easy for you as possible; we work hard to achieve this on every project.
Get in contact! You can contact us via phone or hello@planningplus.co.nz for a no obligation discussion of your proposal. We will listen to what you want to achieve and provide you with preliminary advice. If you decide to proceed, we will meet and start a more detailed assessment.
Before we start working on your project we will send you a fee estimate. This sets out what your proposal is, what work we will do and what we estimate our fees will be. We will not start working until you confirm you agree with the fee estimate; this means we are all on the same page from the start. This open communication is something we pride ourselves on at Planning Plus®; we endeavour to make sure you always know what is happening, when and what the costs are.