Infrastructure Servicing Certificates

The Selwyn District continues to experience a period of significant growth, a trend that has led to a sustained high volume of building and resource consent applications. The Council is committed to processing these applications within statutory timeframes. To facilitate a more streamlined consenting process, certification is required to confirm that there is adequate network capacity to service proposed developments. This certification will be in the form of a Capacity and Connection Assessment issued by Selwyn Water, and a Surface Water Certificate issued by Selwyn District Council.

These are collectively referred to as Infrastructure Servicing Certificates.

Who provides water services in Selwyn?

Selwyn Water Limited (Selwyn Water)

Selwyn Water is responsible for 2 Waters which includes:

  • Drinking water
  • Wastewater

Selwyn Water provides servicing advice, confirms network capacity, and issues approvals for drinking water and wastewater servicing. Find out more about land development processes for drinking water and wastewater on Selwyn Water’s website.

Selwyn District Council is responsible for Surface Water which includes:

  • Stormwater
  • Water races
  • Land drainage

SDC provides servicing advice, confirms network capacity, and issues certificates for stormwater, water race, and land drainage servicing.

Why Infrastructure Servicing Certificates are provided.

This process will provide:

  • Formal servicing advice as part of due diligence stage of a project,
  • Early identification of servicing constraints (don’t need to wait for consent RFI process),
  • Approval of any multiple of Points of Connection or  Points of Discharge per premise in relation to Council Bylaws
  • Streamlined Resource Consent process in terms of 5 Waters servicing assessment
  • Servicing Assessments will fold into the PIM process if required
  • The Infrastructure Servicing Certificates will confirm that there is adequate capacity for your proposal and provide certainty before continuing with your design process.

The Infrastructure Servicing Certificates issued by SDC and Selwyn Water will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue (or any other time frame negotiated at issue).

Requirements to provide Surface Water Certificate or CCA with another application

There are pre-acceptance requirements for certain council applications related to this servicing confirmation which are as follows:

Multiunit residential or commercial

  • For more than three units in a multi-unit development in the residential, commercial/mixed use or industrial zones, where it is sought that these developments connect to or undertake works to water, wastewater, stormwater, water race or land drainage services, a Surface Water Certificate and a Capacity and Connection Assessment must be obtained.
  • These are to be provided with SDC’s Engineering Acceptance application, and Selwyn Water’s Engineering Design Approval application.  The approval of these applications must be obtained prior to submitting a related building consent or resource consent application.

New commercial/industrial buildings creating additional demand  

  • CCA is required where it is proposed that a commercial or industrial building is to be established which will have larger than typical demands for water supply (for example for processing or for firefighting), or produce greater than typical wastewater discharges (for example from processing or from high occupancies).
  • An application for CCA from Selwyn Water is required in the same way as for a multiunit development.

Subdivision

  • A Surface Water Certificate and a Capacity and Connection Assessment is also required for any bare land subdivision application to confirm that there is sufficient network capacity for the additional or altered connections proposed.
  • This certificate must be provided as part of the subdivision application.
  • Please note this requirement does not apply to rural subdivisions with on-site water and wastewater services supplied by the property owner.

How to make an application for an Infrastructure Servicing Certificate

Information to be submitted to SDC:  To submit your application please use this link

Information to be submitted to Selwyn Water: Please use the Capacity and Connection Assessment form on their website

Your applications must include a ‘servicing report’ which includes the following information:

  • Assessment of network(s) that the development requires connections to i.e drinking water, wastewater and stormwater, and assessment of any proposed changes to the water race or land drainage network.
  • Concept plan showing existing water, wastewater, stormwater, water race and land drainage services (as applicable) to the application. This plan will include each required point of connection to Councils and Selwyn Water network. Also to be shown are any extensions of Council’s and Selwyn Water’s networks that are necessary to service the proposed development.
  • Demand calculations including average and peak flowrates as are applicable to the networks to be connected. Details of any proposed wet industry.
  • Details of how your proposal will align with the engineering code of practice.

Fee Structure:

SDC billing is conducted on an hourly basis. The current engineering rates are as outlined in our Annual Plan (this will change from 1 July in accordance with the updated Fees & Charges Schedule). Invoices will be sent to the applicant after the certificates have been issued and will be due in accordance with standard payment terms. Assessing applications where the estimated time required for completion is greater than 5 hours, or where additional modelling or other activities are required, will be presented to applicants for their review and approval before progressing This work will be charged on a time‑and‑materials basis, as per our fees and charges policy, and may impact the overall delivery timeframe. .

Please visit Selwyn Water’s website for all fees and charges associated with drinking water and wastewater services.

Timeframes: Please be assured that we prioritise all requests and strive for efficiency in our processes. Our goal is to respond to your request within a timeframe of 15 business days.