The council officer needs to determine if all the necessary resource consents have been applied for. In order to make this judgement, the council officer needs to check for compliance with the relevant plan(s) rules and relevant matters under the RMA.
When undertaking this check, the council officer should also make note of:
- the degree of non-compliance
- whether the plan requires any particular affected party's written approvals or conversely whether the plan expressly does not require written approvals
- whether written approvals have been obtained
- the type of activity and the associated environmental effects likely to occur from a permitted activity on the site.
If the applicant has not addressed all of the reasons for resource consent or non-compliances, the applicant should be requested to acknowledge any outstanding noncompliance(s) in writing. This ensures the applicant is aware of all of the reasons for resource consent and to ensure that any actual or potential effects arising from additional non-compliances are addressed.
Keep a record of the check against the plan rules on the consent file so it can be easily referred to throughout the processing of the application. This will also allow other council officers to answer queries about the application in the absence of the actual processing officer.
