Processing of Resource Consent Applications

Further information requested

A consent authority may formally request an applicant to provide further information at any reasonable time before the hearing of the application or before a decision on the application is made if no hearing is required (section 92). The council may also commission a report on any matters raised by the application if it believes that there may be significant adverse environmental effects and the applicant is notified and does not refuse to agree to the report being commissioned. The council must provide reasons in writing to the applicant for requesting further information or for commissioning a report.

Where applicants receive a request for further information they have 15 working days within which to either provide the information or advise the consent authority that they agree or refuse to supply the information (section 92A). Where the applicant agrees to supply the information the consent authority must set a reasonable time within which the information must be supplied.

If the applicant does not respond to the request or refuses or fails to provide the information then the consent authority must still consider the application. The consent authority may decline an application on the grounds that it has inadequate information to determine the application (section 104(6)). In making this assessment the consent authority must have regard to whether any further information was made available.

The time taken for the applicant to provide the additional information or decline to provide it, is excluded when calculating the time limits for processing the application if it is the first request made by the authority before notification, or if it is the first request after the closing date for submissions (section 88C).