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Resource consent charges
Under section 36 of the Resource Management Act, regional councils can set charges to help recover some of the costs incurred in carrying out their resource management functions.
Environment Waikato’s resource consent charging system is based on the principle of ‘user pays’. This means that if your activity has any actual or potential effects on a natural resource or other people sharing that resource, then it is fair that you contribute towards the cost of assessing and monitoring the activity and for maintaining records relating to that activity.
Application charging process
When you first apply for your resource consent, you will need to pay any costs involved in assessing and processing your application. These costs will be charged whether your application is granted or declined. We ask for a non-refundable deposit before we begin processing your resource consent application.
After an initial evaluation of your consent application, we will send you a letter indicating the likely costs of processing your application. These costs will vary depending on the potential environmental impacts of your activity and the amount of staff time required to process and assess your consent.
Our costs are determined using the formula:
Charge = (staff time X charge rate) + direct costs including disbursements + notification + hearing costs
Each month we will send you an invoice for costs incurred during the previous month. At the end of the process, a final invoice for the last of the costs will be posted to you along with the council’s decision on the application. Your initial deposit will be deducted from this final invoice.
- Simple, non-notified applications that contain all the required information can cost $500 to $1500.
- Applications that have been subject to public or limited notification which do not go to a hearing can cost between $2500 and $5000.
- Notified applications, where the activity may have significant effects on people and environment (and therefore involve public meetings and hearings), can cost $5000 or more. For these more complicated applications, we may seek a further deposit of up to 50 per cent of the estimated costs.
Reducing application costs
You can help reduce the costs involved in processing your application by:
- talking to us about your proposal before you prepare your application
- consulting with all those parties who may be affected by your proposal, obtaining their views and written approvals if possible
- ensuring that the application forms are fully completed and that all the required supporting information is included
- making sure that you apply for all the resource consents your proposal requires
- ensuring any further information you may be asked for is provided quickly and with the required detail
- attempting to resolve any submissions against your application
- collecting a public notification sign from our Hamilton office (if your application requires public notification) and putting it up on the site yourself.
You should consider getting professional advice from an environmental consultant if your proposed activity is large, complex, may significantly affect the environment or attract significant public interest.
Annual consent holder charges
As a consent holder, you may need to pay an associated annual charge. Annual consent holder charges range from $200 to approximately $3,000, depending on the scale and environmental impact of the activity.
You’ll need to pay this charge from the time your consent is granted until your consent either expires or you have informed us that you will no longer require it. You are also still required to pay annual charges even if you are not physically exercising your consent. This is because, although you may not be doing anything at this point, you have the right to start operating your activity at any time.
Find out more about the annual charge for your resource consent.
Direct monitoring charges
We may monitor your activity to make sure you are complying with your consent conditions and that you are having as little impact as possible on the environment and other people. You will be charged to cover staff time and material costs associated with this monitoring, such as:
- site inspections
- sample collection and processing
- data analysis
- auditing
- reviewing management and monitoring plans
- reporting on monitoring work undertaken.
The monitoring frequency will vary depending on your consent activity. For example, an activity such as an air discharge has the potential to significantly affect people or the environment, so it may be monitored several times a year. Activities such as small dams or minor water takes may only be monitored once every year. Once your consent’s been granted, we’ll tell you about how we propose to monitor it and provide you with a guideline on associated costs.
We will also check out any complaints or reports of non-compliance we may receive about your activity. If the complaint is justified, you’ll be charged for the travel, inspection and administration costs involved with our investigation.
Our costs are determined using the formula:
Charge = (staff time X charge rate) + direct costs including disbursements.
Consent information and advice charges
We will charge for time and material costs when providing resource consent information, documents, technical advice (including advice as to whether a consent is required for a particular activity) and consultancy services.
The first half-hour of staff time involved in providing this information and advice will not be charged, after which the total staff time spent in providing the information will be charged.
Querying charges
If you disagree with our charges in general, you should write to us about it. These charges are reviewed every year as part of our annual planning process, and anyone is allowed to make a submission on our charging decisions. The time to do this is usually about March or April each year, when our Annual Plan is open for public scrutiny.
If you feel that your consent specifically has been incorrectly or unfairly charged, you may write in and formally request a review of your charge. You need to provide us with a valid reason as to why your charge should be adjusted and we will consider your case. Whole or part-remissions of charges are carried out entirely at the council's discretion.
Find out more about how to contact Environment Waikato.
More information
Find out more in our schedule of application deposits and consent holder charges, and staff rates, or read the Financial overview section (available in pdf format below) in our Annual Plan.
Financial overview section
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