He will sit as an independent Dunedin City Council resource consent commissioner.
He trained for the position under regulations he put in place when he was minister for the Environment.
Mr Benson-Pope resigned as a minister in July 2007 because of what were described as misleading statements.
He lost a bitter selection battle for the Dunedin South seat in 2008, and little has been seen or heard from him since he decided not to stand as an independent.
The resource consent hearings committee hearing will be in the Dunedin Municipal Chambers, around the same table at which he sat as a city councillor from 1986 until he was elected to Parliament in 1999.
Asked if his move could precede a return to local body politics, he would only say he hoped "good, confident" councillors were elected later this year.
Asked if he would rule out a return, he said: "You heard what I said."
Cr Colin Weatherall, who was to chair the committee, said yesterday he was unable to fulfil his role because of illness.
He had chosen Mr Benson-Pope, who served as chairman of the council's planning and environment committee, to fill in.
Mr Benson-Pope had completed his accreditation and training in resource management late last year, and was "respected in the community".
"He's been long enough out of Parliament to be non-political," Cr Weatherall said.
Cr Richard Walls would take over from Cr Weatherall as chairman of the consent committee, which will hear an application by supermarket operator Progressive Enterprises to build a Countdown outlet in South Dunedin.
Cr Walls said Mr Benson-Pope would make a "formidable" commissioner.
