Notices of Requirement affect people’s personal property, often directly, and can cause a lot of angst. They also often affect a lot of people- how can you help them and still keep the project moving?
This project related to a bundle of 19 Notices of Requirement from Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi/ NZ Transport Agency (together, the Supporting Growth Alliance), relating to roading upgrades, a new State Highway, transport stations and providing for active transport modes. This was detailed in tens of thousands of pages of assessments, plans and information. Daunting for anyone, let alone someone who hadn’t been involved in any designation process before!
Thousands of properties are affected, and a large number of people. Planning Plus™ was engaged in a Friend of the Submitter role, where our goal was to assist the general public with understanding what was proposed, how they could become involved in the process and what they needed to do. Many of these people were stressed and anxious- not understanding what was happening to their land, when this would happen or what they could do.
Following meetings with the Supporting Growth Alliance team to discuss the Notices of Requirement, Planning Plus™ reviewed the projects, where to locate all the information, processes and timeframes. Internal processes, administration, manuals and resource libraries were established by Planning Plus™- this was important to ensure that correct and consistent advice and service was given to the public, and that this was organised and readily available, to manage time and costs.
Over the duration of this project, the Planning Plus™ team received 315 phone calls and e-mails from the general public, relating to all aspects of what was proposed, the process, how to write submissions, and the hearing process. This level of contact was impossible for Auckland Council to manage in- house, and involvement from Planning Plus® meant that staff in the Council’s policy planning team were able to focus on other aspects of the process, including reviewing thousands of submissions and assessments.
Our personal contact greatly assisted these people to understand and feel comfortable enough to get involved in the process. We often received multiple contacts from people during different phases of the process, indicating how valuable the service to those people most directly affected.
We were pleased to also receive positive feedback from Auckland Council and the Supporting Growth Alliance on how valuable they had found our input throughout this process.
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