38 | Keeping projects on track The wider work is deliberately varied, from single dwellings and apartments to bush and wetland subdivisions, early childhood centres and commercial fit-outs nationwide. Resource Planning Inc T T Kim Newth REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT In its first 10 years, Resource Planning Inc, trading as RPI Planning and Project Management, has made a significant impact on residential and commercial development across Auckland, Northland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty. Founder, Katherine Norman, started at Aurecon in 1998 as a masters graduate, becoming a planning manager and working on contracts including the Northern Busway and Vodafone’s national cell tower rollout. She then spent five years in London project managing commercial developments. Back in New Zealand, she was asked by a friend at a housing company for help with consents that were not moving. “The first job was a single house development, and the consultancy grew from there,” Katherine says, noting that most of the delay and cost in consenting is created before an application is even lodged. “I resolve the council’s concerns early, while the design can still respond, and every client receives the same advocacy, whether it is one house or a staged subdivision.” Working alongside Katherine today is Hamish Blampied, who has 25 years of project management and senior planning experience. Much of their work happens before anyone owns the land, with planning appraisals and feasibility assessments, so a purchaser knows what a site will yield. “Confirming what a site can deliver before settlement costs considerably less than finding out afterwards, and a constraint identified early can usually be resolved through design,” says Katherine. From there, the work runs through consent strategy, the assessment of environmental effects, team coordination, lodgement, the council process and management of the consent after grant. Few planners stay with a consent that long, and fewer will object to a council’s processing charges. Thinking of Building? Experinced. Guaranteed. 100% Kiwi Owned. SamWatt - 027 547 5151 Show Home: 99 Waiwai Drive, Milldale samwatt@platinumhomes.co.nz Get in touch. Proudly working alongside Katherine at Resource Planning Inc The consulting team for your next project Subdivisions - Urban & Rural Boundary Redefinitions House Setouts Drone Mapping & Imagery (09) 425 7393 admin@wwsurveyors.co.nz 23 Bertram Street, Warkworth www.wwsurveyors.co.nz Get in touch “Most applicants cannot judge whether a charge is reasonable, and the amounts are significant, so I review them for my clients.” The specialists vary with each project, but Katherine is always the single point of contact. “Clients deal with one person, who understands their whole project. I coordinate the specialists and hold each party to the agreed time frames,” Katherine says. At West Hoe Heights, RPI obtained a variation restructuring an existing 88-dwelling consent into 12 super lots across six dwelling typologies, working with LTD Architectural and Generation Homes, and then an extension of time. RPI prepares the resource consents for most Warkworth Surveyors’ projects, and works extensively with Signature Homes and also with Platinum Homes. The wider work is deliberately varied, from single dwellings and apartments to bush and wetland subdivisions, early childhood centres and commercial fit-outs nationwide. As deputy chair of the Matakana Community Group, Katherine donated the planning and consenting for the pump track at Diamond Jubilee Park, and the planning for the Matakana Cycle Trail. The Resource Management Act is being replaced with the new planning system to be fully in place by 2030. The RMA still applies, but council must now disregard certain matters when assessing land use consents, including views from private property and the size of residential units. Auckland Council is also amending Unitary Plan provisions, and councils will introduce mandatory application checklists. “Applications lodged now are assessed differently from those lodged before the transition, so clients need early advice on how the changes affect their proposal,” says Katherine. “Council is also placing more weight on the quality of applications, which has always been the focus of my work.”
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