About pre-application
If you are planning a development, subdivision or building that may need consents or permits we recommend you consider talking to us before you submit your application.
Early discussions with us will help you make informed decisions about your application and avoid unnecessary processing delays.
We can help you:
- understand the process
- confirm what, if any, consents, permits or licenses you need
- get guidance about who you should be talking to about your project and what expertise you may need to assist you
- find out what information you need to help you prepare application(s)
- identify any issues that you may need to address in your application(s).
Contact us for information and guidance
We offer:
- Free assistance: Face-to-face assistance is available free of charge at all of our area offices. In addition, we offer free telephone and email assistance with straight forward enquiries and for those who are unable to make it to one of our offices.
- Pre-application meetings: Individually tailored pre-application meetings allow you to discuss your proposal in more detail with the relevant staff. We can help you determine whether a meeting will be beneficial to you.
Call or email us for advice or visit one of our customer service centres.
Pre-application meetings
Criteria
Consider requesting a resource consent pre-application meeting if your project involves:
- using, developing or subdividing land
- activities in the coastal marine area
- discharging contaminants to land, air or water
- taking, using, damming or diverting water
- industrial trade processes
- contaminated land, or
- works in the beds of lakes or rivers.
Consider requesting a building control pre-application meeting if your project involves any sort of construction.
If your proposal involves both resource and building elements, complete either application form and we will ensure that the right people attend your meeting.
Request a meeting
- Fill in and submit an online form:
- download and complete a pdf version of the form for either pre-application meeting (see the right-hand side) and send it to us by post or email.
Postal address:
Pre-application meeting
Auckland Council
Private Bag 92300
Auckland 1142
Email building control:
Email resource consents:
In addition to the form, please provide any conceptual plans, drawings, photos, draft assessments of environmental effects or other relevant information you have.
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Costs
A standard proposal will incur a fixed fee of $210 (including GST). You will be invoiced for any further costs (such as a second meeting) as they are incurred.
For complex proposals there is a deposit fee of $210 (including GST). Additional actual and reasonable costs will be invoiced as they are incurred. Standard hourly rates for all staff (excluding administrators) apply.
We will tell you if your proposal is standard or complex. You can request an estimate of pre-application costs if your proposal is likely to be complex.
Please send payment when you make your request for a meeting.
For more information on the charging policy see the information sheet for pre-application meetings for resource consent (PDF 44kb).
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When should you talk to us?
How far along you are in your planning will influence when and how you choose to engage with us, what you want to discuss, the information we may ask you to provide and what preparation and follow-up you might do.
Speaking to us at the concept, prelimimary design or draft stages of your project will ensure you have a good understanding of what needs to be done to progress your project.
Remember there is no wrong time to be talking to us!
How can you get maximum benefit from a pre-application meeting?
To help ensure you get maximum benefit from a pre-application meeting and so we can prepare appropriately, it is important you:
- let us know in advance of the meeting about the topics or issues you would like to discuss
- provide us with as much detailed information as possible, bearing in mind that it is absolutely fine to discuss your ideas even where they are only conceptual in nature
- bring your client or professional advisors such as planners, architects or engineers to the meeting if this is appropriate.
Please note
Any views expressed by Council staff in or following a pre-application meeting are the preliminary views of those staff, made in good faith based on the information supplied and their knowledge of the relevant rules. It remains the applicant’s responsibility to take their own professional planning and legal advice, and to rely solely on that advice, in making any application for consents, permits or licenses.
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