Rural Dwellings

All residential activity within the Rural Resource Area requires resource consent. This includes anything from building a dwelling, relocating a tiny home or living in a caravan on site. Resource consent is separate to a building consent.

To apply for resource consent, you need to provide us with information on your proposal. Your resource consent application should include:

• A site plan showing distances from the site boundaries, any buildings, natural features and nearby roads. You will also need to show location of services - where your water will be coming from, the effluent disposal system, location of telecommunication and power connections, and where the entrance to the site will be.
• What the building will look like, include floor plan, building elevations so we can tell what the exterior of the house will look like (including materials and colours), and clearly indicate the height above natural ground level.
• An Assessment of Effects on the Environment (AEE) is required to accompany the application.

The rural dwelling resource consent checklist can assist you to make sure you have all the required information.

We encourage you to come and talk to us about your proposal early on. We are happy to go through your plans with you and help identify any issues. The Rural Resource Area rules and standards can be found in Section 4 of the District Plan.

Things we will check are:

• Does the dwelling/building meet the minimum required distance from the boundary?
• What colour is the exterior of the dwelling going to be? A colour palette is provided under Section 4 of the District Plan. Generally, colours should blend into the surrounding area.
• How prominent will the dwelling be in the landscape? Council will check if the dwelling is on a skyline or ridgeline and how prominent the building will be in the landscape. We encourage you to choose a site that allows for the most natural screening of your dwelling. We may ask for profile poles to be erected to assess the height and prominence of the dwelling once resource consent is lodged.
• What services are available, what design will they be? You'll need access to a potable water supply and have an effluent disposal system. There are specific standards associated with these services. It is helpful to let us know where power and telephone lines will be. These need to be located underground.
• Where will your vehicle entrance and site access be? We particularly want to know if your access is going to add another entrance onto a road. There are standards associated with the creation of entrances to roadways that need to be met. For further information, please contact roading@codc.govt.nz.
• Do you have a suitable source for firefighting water supply? Fire and Emergency New Zealand have specific guidelines that all new dwellings must comply with.

Other important things to remember are that there are rules relating to:

• Distances from water races and irrigation pipelines.
• Distances from water bodies, riparian margins, transmission lines, road intersections, airport protection zones, and sewage treatment facilities.
• Tree planting, hazard areas, noise, signs, access and parking, significant areas and landscape.

You may need written approval from neighbours or other parties like, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga for heritage buildings or sites that are more than 100 years old.