Council requirements for school-led property projects

School sites are generally designated for educational purposes. That means the zone rules of the district plan don’t apply to the school site.

While school property projects don’t need resource consents under the district plan, they may require a resource consent under the regional plan – for example, if they relate to:

• stormwater discharge
• wastewater discharge
• bulk earthworks
• disturbance of contaminated soil.

Outline Plan of Works

Construction on sites designated for educational purposes in the district plan requires an Outline Plan of Works (OPW). You must submit this to the council so they can review it and request any changes needed before work starts on the site. This is in accordance with Section 176A of the Resource Management Act.

Resource Management Act – New Zealand Legislationopen_in_new

Most school property projects require formal approval to conduct building work under the Building Act 2004.

The project manager must apply to the local council for building consent once the board has approved the project designs.

Building Act 2004 – New Zealand Legislationopen_in_new

Specified systems

You’ll need a building consent if you’re adding, changing, or removing a specified system.

Common specified systems include:

• fire safety systems
• automatic doors
• lifts
• swipe card access systems.

The Building Performance website has more information about compliance schedules for specified systems.

Specified systems and compliance schedules – Building Performanceopen_in_new

The project manager is responsible for applying for a code compliance certificate (CCC) and a compliance schedule (CS) from the council. They must get the CS when the project is complete.

The board can’t use a building until it has a CCC. An exception is if the project already has a certificate for public use (CPU) for the finished part of the building.

The project manager must also share the CCC and CS information with the property advisor, building warrant of fitness (BWOF) team and Argest. They’ll need to work with the school to register with Argest to manage the future annual BWOF process. This can be done via Argest's website.

Schools – Argest NZopen_in_new

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) are also included in the approval process.

Building consents – FENZopen_in_new

Building and construction – MBIEopen_in_new

Get in touch with your property advisor if:

• you need advice on Resource Management Act requirements and OPW processes
• the project requires any additional approvals – for example, if a building sits over 2 or more sections and you need our approval to get a section 75 certificate under the Building Act.

Construction of building on 2 or more allotments – New Zealand Legislationopen_in_new