Before you develop your property or undertake a new activity it pays to check the relevant District Plan rules. The rules differ depending on what zone your property is in. The rules identify what you can do as of right and what you’ll need a resource
consent to do.
What are zones?
Under the Waikato District Plan, zones manage how different areas are used, developed or protected.
All land in the Waikato District has a zone.
In general, the way that land is zoned reflects how it is used and what sort of activities happen there. Zoning can also identify how land use is expected to change in the future.
Why we have zoning rules
Zoning rules require us to consider potential effects development or activity might have on:
- environment
- heritage
- culture
- public infrastructure
- conservation
- people.
For instance, in some zones you can do more intensive development than others.
What you can build and where
Each zone has rules specifying things like:
- what you can build
- how high you're allowed to build
- how close to the boundary you can build
- how you can use the land
- what sort of activities you can use buildings or land for (housing, business, offices, industry, etc)
- Whether or not you can subdivide your property
There are also district-wide planning rules that are the same no matter where your property is.
Policy overlays
In the District Plan, there are zones for certain development activities. Examples are rural, commercial, or residential zones. There can also be policy overlays and special areas identified over these zones.
A policy overlay generally applies tighter controls over an area than the underlying zone does, although in some cases they can be more enabling. You can find the policy overlays for your property on the Waikato District Plan maps page.
When you select your property on the Waikato District Plan maps you can use the right hand pane to identify the property zoning and policy overlays that apply.
Check the zone for your property
Search for your property and identify the zone that applies. The
zone rules and district-wide rules are found in the District Plan.
Need help?
Our duty planners will be able to answer any questions you have about your zone.
Contact a duty planner