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A passion for planning combined with the pace of local development has led to Warkworth-based planner Burnette O’Connor establishing her own planning practice once again, with the launch of The Planning Collective.
Burnette ran O’Connor Planning Consultancy (OPC Limited) for 17 years, until she sold it to national consultancy Barker & Associates in 2017. Now, after two years on their management team, she’s keen to get back to the nuts and bolts of hands-on local planning issues.
“I’m passionate about planning and I like to be at the sharp end of actual planning work, rather than in more of a management role, which is where you end up when you’re part of a larger team,” she says.
“I’ve worked with some great people, but my passion is doing the actual planning. I don’t want to spend my time peer-reviewing other people’s work.”
Burnette provides strategic planning advice and consenting strategy, including lodging applications, giving evidence at Auckland Council hearings and the Environment Court, mediations and a wide range of other resource management work for anything from basic resource consent applications to large-scale projects and rural and residential subdivision.
She also works as an independent commissioner, and can hear and determine resource consent hearings.
Her new business will continue to be based in Warkworth, where she’s lived most of her life.
“Warkworth is my home and community. I’ve been here many years and appreciate the loyalty from the community,” she says. “I’m looking forward to being able to provide a full range of planning services in Warkworth, which I think is going to become increasingly important because of all the development, and I’ll work really hard to get the best planning outcomes.”
Her current projects include an application seeking to rezone 99 hectares of land north of Warkworth, known as Stubbs Farm, from future urban to a mix of residential, business and open space areas.
