Assessment criteria

Assessment criteria are incorporated into some plan rules to help guide applicants and those processing consents as to the matters to which particular attention should be paid.

In Application by Christchurch City Council [1995], the Court held that assessment criteria should not be included in the plan as rules. The statutory framework of the RMA enables provision for such criteria (or matters of assessment) to be included in such a way that the consent authority should have regard to them through their presence in objectives and policies. A similar view was held by the majority of practitioners attending a workshop hosted by the Ministry for the Environment on 24 and 25 November 2005. Assessment criteria can also be expressed as matters over which control or discretion is retained when writing rules for controlled or restricted discretionary activities.

In Wakatipu Environmental Society v Queenstown Lakes District Council [2001] C075/2001, the Court also implied that there may a role for assessment criteria in full discretionary activities when there was a need to draw attention to particular effects. In this case the Court also considered that the way the rule was worded could make the assessment criteria mandatory (eg, “…the council must be satisfied…”) or discretionary (eg, “…the council may take into account whether…”) in an application.

Practice in using assessment criteria

• Incorporate assessment criteria into policies instead of rules where possible.
• Where assessment criteria are contained in objectives and policies, ensure there is a clear cross-referencing back to them from the rules that implement those objectives and policies.
• Where assessment criteria in controlled or restricted discretionary activities rules are intended to be (or have the effect of) matters over which the council intends to retain control or restrict its discretion, they should be expressed as such.
• Matters of assessment should relate back to effects the activity may have on the environment, or the aspect of non-compliance that has triggered the need for the resource consent.
• Write assessment criteria as ‘inclusive’ statements (ie, “…includes the following…”).
• The following phrases can be used at the start of each assessment matter:
• “The extent to which …”
• “The ability to…”
• “The degree to which…”
• “Whether the…”

For additional guidance on wording assessment criteria, see Lakes District Rural Landowners Society Inc. v Wakatipu Environmental Society [2001] C075/2001.