About Rico

Rico is a software platform used across both the applicant and council sides of the resource consent process. It enables planners to streamline and improve the quality of planning assessments, reports, and applications. Rico is used to:

• Prepare resource consent applications (typically by planning consultants)

• Process resource consents (typically by councils)

To support this, Rico integrates relevant planning documents (Plans) and spatial data (GIS), which are otherwise manually sourced and inserted into reports—often adding time and risk of error.

What Data We Use

We use publicly available planning and GIS information to enhance the usability and efficiency of planning workflows. We do not claim ownership over this information and make it available purely for operational use within Rico.

Plans

We structure and tag content from district and regional plans into a machine-readable format for use in assessments. This includes:

• Objectives, policies, rules, and other provisions

• Relevant explanatory notes

These provisions are only those that are operative or have legal effect (we do not track provisions at earlier stages of plan change process as these are changeable and addressed in Rico as part of a qualitative assessment).

GIS

Rico connects directly to council GIS systems to retrieve and display spatial data (e.g. zones, overlays, features). This data is pulled on demand, meaning:

• It is not stored on Rico’s servers

• It reflects the most current data available at the time of access

• A timestamp is provided so users know when the data was retrieved

Approach to Plan Information

Respecting Councils as Data Originators

Although plan content is public, we notify relevant councils of our intent to use it and welcome any feedback or concerns. This ensures transparency and goodwill with councils as the original authors of planning instruments.

Accuracy and Maintenance

Rico manages tens of thousands of plan provisions. While we strive for the highest standards, perfect accuracy is not always possible due to the nature of plan updates. Our target accuracy is 99.9%.

We maintain internal processes to ensure the integrity of our plan data, including:

• Weekly monitoring of plan change web pages

• Subscription to council update emails

• Direct engagement with policy teams (where possible)

Plan changes are logged, reviewed, and implemented. A full audit trail is kept for every plan loaded into Rico, including:

• Source and date of original load

• Record of subsequent updates

• Documents affected and changes made

This is available to customers on request for auditing and quality assurance purposes.

User Responsibilities and Limitations

Scope of Data Provided

Rico does not provide an exhaustive or authoritative source of plan content. We offer provisions and notes relevant to assessments, and direct users to original source documents throughout the platform.

Responsibility for Use

Per our standard Terms of Use (some customers may have contract specific provisions to a similar effect):

• Users are fully responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their reports and applications created using Rico.

• Per the above, local authorities bear no liability for plan information sourced from their plans and made available via Rico.

Source Awareness

We encourage users to remain familiar with source planning documents. Rico includes links to original plans to support user verification and confidence.

Approach to GIS Information

GIS data in Rico is:

• Accessed directly from council systems (never stored)

• Time-stamped to show when it was retrieved

• Monitored for changes in layer structure or access methods

Where we detect GIS service changes (e.g. URLs, schema adjustments), we respond promptly to update our integrations and maintain service reliability.

Raising Issues or Feedback

If a council or user identifies an issue with data accuracy or wishes to raise concerns:

• Contact us via live chat or support@rico.nz

• We welcome suggestions to improve data coverage and accuracy