Land Use Consents

If you are undertaking a land use activity in the Grey District, such as building a house, operating a business from home, storing hazardous substances, erecting a sign or relocating a building, you may require a Land Use resource consent.

Do you require a land use consent?

To determine whether or not you will require consent, you first need to check the District Plan Planning Maps to find out which Environmental Area (zone) your property is in. This often differs from the general rating differential shown on your rates invoice (the zoning of your property and the rating differential are separate matters).

Once you have determined your Environmental Area, please refer to the relevant Environmental Area Rules. If you do not meet the permitted activity rules for your Environmental Area, then you will require resource consent. To view the rules for your property, refer to Chapters 16-20 of the District Plan.

Forms to be completed

All applications for land use resource consents must be made by completing Form 1 - Land Use.

Please Note: Parts of Form 1 requires knowledge of the Resource Management Act and the District Plan and the level of information required to be completed depends on the scale and intensity of your proposed activity. If you would like any assistance completing, please contact Council's Planning Department (our contact details are at the bottom of this page). Otherwise we recommend that you engage a suitably qualified planning consultant.

For some specific types of activities there are supplementary application forms which ask more specific questions about your activity. If your activity includes any of the following, you should also fill out the appropriate supplementary forms:

• Hazardous Substances (complete Form 1A - Hazardous Substances)
• Commercial Activities (complete Form 1B - Commercial Activities)
• Signage (complete Form 1C - Signage)
• Heritage Areas, Items or Features (complete Form 1E - Heritage)
• Relocated Buildings (complete Form 1D - Relocated Buildings). For more information on the process of relocating buildings in the Grey District, click on the following document:

Relocated Buildings Guide (PDF, 63KB)

Please visit the Forms page to download your required form.

Affected party approval

Your application for land use resource consent is likely to result in you requiring the approval of one or more affected parties. You may wish to make the process easier by getting the approvals of people who you think may be affected by your proposal before lodging your resource consent application. The approval of both the owner and occupier of properties will be required - please complete Form 4 - Affected Party Approval Form.

In order for your affected party approval to be considered valid, you must state exactly why resource consent is required on the form, and the person must have signed a copy of the site plan which is required as part of your land use resource consent application.

For more information on affected party approvals, please view the following document:

Affected Party Approval Guide (PDF, 76KB)

Contaminants in soil

The National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health came into effect on 1 January 2012.

This standard applies to any piece of land on which an activity or industry described in the current edition of the Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) is, has been, or is more likely than not to have been undertaken.

Council has included notes in the rules sections of the Grey District Plan to enable the Council to implement the national regulation and updated relevant Council checklists and application forms to reflect the requirements of the regulation. For more information or to find out if the regulation is applicable to an activity that you propose, please check out the following:

Grey District Council NES Contaminants in Soil Guide (PDF, 82KB)

Land Owner Guide from the Ministry for the Environment (PDF, 171KB)

You can also visit the NES section of the Ministry for the Environment website.

Queries

If you are unsure of what is required, it is important that you speak to a planner as they will be able to assist you in making a complete application. An application that is considered to be incomplete will be returned to the applicant without being processed. Please contact the Planning Department if you have any questions, email planning@greydc.govt.nz or phone 03 769 8607.