Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) has released a request for proposal (RFP) for a Planning and Development professional services panel. The panel will assist the in-house team which includes resource consents, building consents, resource management engineering, and planning policy.

QLDC Chief Executive Mike Theelen advised the panel will help deliver a high volume of work and achieve the objectives established in the QLDC 2018-2028 Ten Year Plan.

“As our district is one of the fastest growing regions in New Zealand, we deal with a large number of resource consents, building consents and other approvals to match demand. By having a panel of additional technical support and resource to draw upon, it will provide the flexibility to right-size resource when needed through the peaks and troughs,” said Mr Theelen.

QLDC is experiencing some of the highest numbers of resource consent and building consent applications in the country, outstripping many of New Zealand’s major cities, excluding Auckland City. Over the last few years that has seen around 1,400 resource consent and around 1,900 Building Consent applications received per annum.

QLDC General Manager Planning and Development Tony Avery advised that once appointed, the panel members will be preferred suppliers for the delivery of professional services.

“We are seeking to appoint two resource types to the panel: those of Specialist and On-going Support. The On-going Support will supplement the in-house team for work including consent processing and reports. The Specialist Support will provide additional technical expertise which we currently outsource periodically. This includes landscape, noise, and geotech assessments,” said Mr Avery.

“We aim to appoint based on the best fit for each discipline and relevant expertise as well as their understanding of and commitment to the District. The panel will be a consistent resource for us and an extension of the in-house team,” Mr Avery added.

The RFP will be open for applications from today (30 August 2019) until 12 noon on 9 October 2019 via the GETS portal.

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