Pre-application Meetings

Pre-application meetings provides an opportunity
for you to present your preliminary designs, tell us about your project and to receive feedback about what you may have to consider or incorporate into the application you eventually make for a building consent, help identify all stakeholders who are to be involved with the design process, and allows for us to arrange for representatives from other departments within Council to be present at the meeting to answer any questions about the proposed building work. There is no charge for the initial pre-application meeting on the project because there are benefits to everyone in having these discussions up front.

Pre-application meetings provides an opportunity

for you to present your preliminary designs, tell us about your project and to receive feedback about what you may have to consider or incorporate into the application you eventually make for a building consent,
help identify all stakeholders who are to be involved with the design process, and
allows for us to arrange for representatives from other departments within Council to be present at the meeting to answer any questions about the proposed building work.

There is no charge for the initial pre-application meeting on the project because there are benefits to everyone in having these discussions up front.

A pre-application meeting before applying for your building consent is
recommended if you are building a commercial or industrial building, and beneficial for other types of projects (eg complex residential consents, specific engineered design projects, and change of use). Sometimes we may request having a pre-application meeting with you after you have submitted your building consent if there are aspects that require significant clarification. This allows to discuss and agree what documentation supporting your design is required for your project.

A pre-application meeting before applying for your building consent is

recommended if you are building a commercial or industrial building, and
beneficial for other types of projects (eg complex residential consents, specific engineered design projects, and change of use).
Sometimes we may request having a pre-application meeting with you after you have submitted your building consent if there are aspects that require significant clarification. This allows to discuss and agree what documentation supporting your design is required for your project.

Depending on the project, and the types of issues to be resolved, or the information wanted by your design team, preapplication meetings may commence early in the design stages and continue right up to the lodging of your building consent application.
Pre-application meetings might be in person, online, or a combination of both. They may result in ongoing email discussions or similar between key parties and the presentation of design documents. The outcomes from the meetings are incorporated into you final design. We hold information from the pre-application stage and can link this to your future building consent application so that it’s available as background information when processing your consent.

Depending on the project, and the types of issues to be resolved, or the information wanted by your design team, preapplication meetings may commence early in the design stages and continue right up to the lodging of your building consent application.

Pre-application meetings might be in person, online, or a combination of both.
They may result in ongoing email discussions or similar between key parties and the presentation of design documents.
The outcomes from the meetings are incorporated into you final design.
We hold information from the pre-application stage and can link this to your future building consent application so that it’s available as background information when processing your consent.

Staged building consents - Pre-application meetings are required if you intend to have a staged building consent.
Specific engineered design projects - Complex building structures requiring specific engineering design (SED). These projects are forwarded to the in specialist input (SI) to undertake a desktop review and comment on compliance with the building code clause B1.

If you’re submitting complex construction for a residential dwelling we’d encourage you to set up a pre-application meeting. This:

allows one of our residential senior Building Surveyor and/or Team Leader Residential to discuss any concerns regarding B1 SED designs with the applicant, and
will ensure the applicant understands the specialist input (SI) process for the consent and the time frames to be considered for the specialist input.

What’s required to have a pre-application meeting?

Email contact us or call 0800 SELWYN to arrange a meeting.

Usually we will want to review some preliminary information that gives us an idea of what you are proposing so we can arrange for the right people to attend and to help with setting an agenda of discussion points.

We will reply to you and indicate what the next steps are towards the meeting.

Pre-application meeting process

	Owner/agent Contact the building department to arrange pre-application meeting Submit a staged project approval form (if required) Provide some project information

	SDC building team Review information to understand scope Set up a meeting and confirm who is attending Request additional preliminary information to review pre-meeting Agree on agenda of discussion points

	All parties involved Discuss the details of the proposal and agree on actions required Confirm requirements for future meetings and format of these Document the meeting and outcomes

	SDC building team Follow up on the meeting decisions Set up a pre-application meeting reference folder to save all communications Confirm any SDC engineering review requirements to support process

	Project design team Complete documentation for the building consent application

Pre-application Meetings

What’s required to have a pre-application meeting?

Pre-application meeting process

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