Planners in a complex and challenging role

---

With four senior vacancies and high growth creating more demand for consents, planners at local council say they are feeling the pressure. 

KDC’s acting regulatory, planning and policy general manager, Darla Blake, says consents and processing is a large and complicated framework to operate in especially in a rapid growth district like Kaipara. 

“Balancing the rise of complex consents with managing environmental impacts is something the planning team have to work out every day,” she says. “The job vacancies are very difficult to fill due to a national shortage of experienced planning professionals… and this places pressure on all staff and unfortunately negatively affects our ability to address the needs of customers in a timely manner.”

With the number of resource consent applications up 43 per cent in just one year, planners are required to evaluate multiple sources of increasingly complex information and provide expert guidance to inform and optimise decision making. 
“It is a challenging role, resulting sometimes in dissatisfied customers, especially if there is conflict between private benefit and wishes, and environmental outcomes.” 

The planners, who are all qualified, experienced professionals and residents of Kaipara, are trying to support the building of communities while also protecting the environment ‘that we all value’ Blake says. 

“The planning staff want to have a positive working relationship with our community as well as see positive growth and development,” she says. “We hope to minimise dissatisfaction by ensuring applicants are kept informed and treated respectfully, and we welcome all constructive feedback and ideas in this regard.”

 Planning is a profession and policy documents including the District Plan can be complex and difficult to navigate. Planning staff want to encourage applicants to seek professional advice from a suitably qualified and experienced planner to ensure the process, expectations and timeframes are clearly understood.
 

---