Here’s the latest information about building
consents and resource consents from Waikato District Council.
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In this issue:
Changes you need to know about:
Helpful tips and reminders:
Team update
Building Consents team
Over the past 12-18 months the Building Inspectors and Processing Officers that did not have a formal Qualification as required by Regulation 18 of the Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities Regulations have now completed the NZ Diploma in Building Surveying – Level 5.
This is now a mandatory qualification for all Building Inspectors and Processing Officers and we’re super proud of how quickly they all completed the qualification on top of their normal day-to-day duties.
Big congratulations to them all for putting in so much effort, and how well they did.
Resource consents
After slowing down before Christmas, the number of resource consent applications lodged with Council are steadily increasing again.
The below figures illustrates the total number of approved Landuse and Subdivision consents and 223 & 224 approvals up to February 2019.
- Subdivision applications: 173
- Landuse consents applications: 291
- 223 Certificates signed: 139
- 224 Certificates issued: 174
Staff Profile: Meet Wade Hill, our new Consents Team Leader
Wade Hill has recently joined our Consents Team. To better serve our communities, our Consents teams are now split into three areas – northern, central and southern. Wade is the newly appointed Team Leader for the central team. The central team covers the Raglan, Newcastle, Ngaruawahia, Taupiri and Huntly wards.
Wade has more than 20 years of experience in resource management and planning. He has worked in a range of local government organisations in the Waikato and Canterbury regions as well as the Department of Conservation and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu.
“The Waikato District is known as one of the fastest growing districts in the New Zealand. I am excited to be starting work with the Council and in a district with so much potential for change”.
Wade lives in Cambridge with his wife and two teenage children, who keep them busy with their sporting and other extracurricular activities.
Processing statistics
Here are the latest numbers for building and resource consents, as well as LIMs and new lots.
What's happening: heavenly addition to Te Kowhai
Resource consent has been granted to establish and operate a café and gift shop in Te Kowhai utilising Hamilton’s oldest surviving church; the St Paul's Methodist Church.
The Church building has recently been relocated onto a site along Horotiu Road in Te Kowhai. Restoration and refurbishment of the church is set to be completed this year. Read more about the church.
Process focus: Swimming pool inspections
We are currently receiving a lot of enquiries regarding existing pool inspections and the fees associated with these inspections. As a pool owner you are responsible to keep the pool compliant at all times. Council must inspect existing pools every 3
years for compliance. If the pool is compliant then there is an $80 fee. This covers the inspection, travel to and from the property and administration time. So if the owner has a compliant pool then the total fee would be $80 this equates to $26
per year. Council feels this is a reasonable fee.
Any follow up inspections due to non-compliance have a $155 fee for a recheck inspection for the safety and compliance of the pool, however this fee only applies if the owner has not kept their pool compliant.
Changes to be aware of
Changes to our Duty Planner service
Duty Planners will be available for appointments between 8.30am and 11.30am Monday –Thursday at our Ngaruawahia office, and 8.30am and 11.30am Fridays at our Tuakau office. Development in the northern areas of our district is increasing, and we are excited to be rolling out our Duty Planner service in Tuakau to meet this growth. These changes are part of efforts to make the Duty Planner service more efficient and align with the services offered by our Building Department. We hope this change will improve the efficiency of our service by allowing our Duty Planners to spend more time responding to electronic and phone enquiries, which have a much higher demand than our appointment service.
People wanting to book an appointment or log an enquiry with our Duty Planning Team can fill in this form or call our friendly Contact Centre staff on 0800 492 452. Please note: this means there will be no Duty Planner service at the Ngaruawahia Office on Fridays.
Website update and online building inspection booking
We've updated our section of the website and it is now called Consents, building and property. The updated section includes a lot more information then before about resource and building consents.
During this update we also added the ability for you to book building inspections online.
Check it out and let us know what you think by using the feedback tool found on the bottom of every page.
We’ve updated our building consents flyer
We’ve updated our Building Consents flyer which
tells you how to submit your building consent application electronically.
View the new flyer.
Helpful tips and reminders
Here are some tips and reminders that we hope will make it easier for you when you are working with us, or when you are compiling an application.
Pre-application duty service
Please remember if you have a planning question we have our duty planner service or if you have an advanced proposal ready for lodgement, our pre-application service is also available.
Blueprints is now open for further consultation
We’re going back to our communities to get their feedback on Blueprints, our new approach to town master planning. We’re excited to meeting with our communities again. We’ll be asking them to let us know what their top priorities are for their communities and the district. Please make sure you have your say. You’ll find more information at www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/blueprints
We’d love to get your feedback
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