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Which Door, Which Questions

The classification path from proposal to approval, walked to its three termini. The question set every downstream report inherits is fixed at the fork, long before any specialist opens a file.

Sociable Systems · Assessment mechanics

Which Door, Which Questions

The classification path a resource-intensive facility walks from proposal to approval. The question set every downstream report inherits is fixed at the fork, long before any specialist opens a file.

This describes the general structure of the routes, drawn from the legislation and how such applications generally proceed, and not any particular application. Every terminus below is reachable in compliance with the framework. That is the finding.

Fork one · national environmental legislation

Does the proposal include generation above the listed threshold, or fuel storage above the storage threshold?

This is where the national environmental trigger bites: on the plant’s supporting systems, not its draw.

Yes: a listed activity is triggered

Terminus A

Door one opens, for that activity

Full scoping and environmental impact report are required. The file that results is about the generators and the diesel tanks. It is a real assessment, properly conducted, of the equipment rather than the facility.

In scope at this terminusImpacts of the triggered activity; specialist studies; public participation with registered parties; enforceable conditions. The facility’s draw on the municipal system only enters where the scoping decision is written to include it, which costs a sentence, and currently costs nothing else because nobody asks.

No: continue down the classification path

Fork two · municipal land use planning

Is the proposed use inside development rights that already exist?

Existing industrial or business bulk, an existing use basket, a consent already on the scheme.

Yes: carved from rights already granted

Terminus B

No new land-use approval is required at all

The use is lawful on arrival. Building-plan and engineering-servicing checks follow, and the neighbours in the noise model are the receptors. No tribunal, no objector standing, no record beyond the site boundary.

In scope at this terminusBuilding compliance and engineering standards. Classification, not assessment, has done the work. The most consequential decision in the facility’s life was made when nobody experienced it as a decision.

No: a change of rights is sought

Terminus C · door two

Land-use application to the tribunal

Rezoning, consent use, subdivision. The tribunal decides whether this use, at this scale, in this place belongs. It is the one decision point where the question can still be asked, and the resource figures are, on the standard route, not yet due.

In scope at this terminusZoning compatibility, the spatial development framework, surrounding owners’ rights, traffic relative to prior permitted use. Objectors have standing here, against this decision, on this record.

Then, after the decision: the Site Development PlanWater, power and servicing figures arrive at a later, more administrative stage, checked against engineering standards. They pass, because meeting engineering standards is what a good design submission does. Whether objectors hold standing at that stage is currently an open item; see Verification Ledger, item 07. It is marked as an inference everywhere it appears in our work until the by-law is read directly.

The question set at each terminus

The question	A · Door one (triggered activity)	B · Inside existing rights	C · Door two (tribunal)
Is the use compatible with the zoning scheme and surrounding rights?	Where relevantConsidered relative to the triggered activity.	Never askedThe rights already exist; no decision is taken.	Core testProperly applied.
What does the facility draw from municipal water and power?	Only if scoped inCosts a sentence in the scoping decision.	Never askedServicing confirmed as adequate, later.	DeferredArrives at the SDP, after the decision.
What is the cumulative draw across facilities on one system?	Rarely reachedRequired in principle, thin in practice.	Never askedNo process aggregates.	Out of jurisdictionEach application adjudicated alone.
Do affected parties have standing, and to what?	Yes, registeredWith appeal rights against the authorisation.	NoneNo approval to object to.	At the rights decisionWhat follows it is a design submission. Standing at that stage: open item.
Who bears the cost of the allocation, and what do they receive for it?	If scoped inThe social component, where assessment includes one.	Never asked	Out of jurisdictionBenefit claims may be recorded. Nothing tests them.

What follows from the tree

The fork is the assessment. Which branch a facility takes determines every question downstream reports are permitted to contain. Improving the reports changes nothing about the fork.
Terminus B is the quiet one. The route with no approval at all is the one nobody experiences as a decision, and therefore the one with no handle attached.
Door one is already adequate. Terminus A can hold every question in the table. The framework is not broken; the expectation is missing.
The SDP deferral is the mechanism to watch. Not because anything is hidden, but because the due date for the figures falls after the decision they were material to.

Register

This tree names no application, no firm and no place. Whether a particular facility took branch A, B or C, and what its record contains, is a question for that record, and the record is usually public.