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If you’ve gone through the process of applying for Resource or Building Consent in Auckland this year (2016), you will no doubt have felt the presence of the “elephant in the Auckland Council living room”. Needless to say in the last 3-4 years, Auckland has been going through a strong growth phase of increased population, house values, and Building Consents to meet demand.
In the second half of this year the Auckland Unitary Plan become partly operative. Many property owners that would have been worse-off under the new planning rules, rushed in to submit Subdivision or Minor Dwelling Consent Applications prior to the change.
Luckily, a 1% discount of the total administrative charges for every working day on which an Application remains unprocessed beyond the statutory timeframe, up to a maximum of 50 working days, will be applied.
The time will come very soon, when the Auckland Unitary Plan is fully operative and the New Zealand Government can only hope that Auckland Council have become more efficient with the processing of Consents. Failing to do so, the Government may need to take matters into their own hands.
This is the biggest “Elephant in the Room”. The inability to deal with the new Unitary Plan is a catch-22 situation, Auckland Council needs to figure out how to resolve it quickly and efficiently, or the dream of balanced supply and demand will never become a reality.
