For she’s a jolly good Fellow

For she’s a jolly good Fellow

May 20, 2016

A prominent Auckland planner, Jane Douglas, has become the fourth woman in the history of the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) to be bestowed as a Fellow of the institute.

The honour conferred at a special event last night recognises Douglas’s long and distinguished contribution to planning and the NZPI.

She has been a member of substantial teams of consultants on major planning projects such as the Waitemata Harbour Crossing and the Eastern Corridor strategy study in Auckland.

Her work experience is wide ranging, and traverses the former Town and Country Planning Act 1977 and the Resource Management Act 1991. She had early involvement in the creation of new generation District Plans under the RMA, notably in the Whanganui and Taranaki region.

Douglas has had extensive engagement in iwi matters, including the preparation of iwi management plans and marae applications. She has been extensively involved in a wide range of planning activities including environmental assessment, policy development, transport studies, urban upgrades, statutory planning and infrastructure management.

She was elected to the council of the NZPI in 2004 and served as a councillor for two terms. She became vice president in 2008, and president in 2010.

NZPI chief executive Susan Houston says Douglas was an outstanding a visionary leader driving the reform of the NZPI governance structure and served on the newly established board of the institute until 2015.

“During her time on the council she held a number of portfolios, including significant roles relating to national policy and international relations. She was recognised by the institute in 2012 as a recipient of NZPI’s Distinguished Service Award,” Houston says.

A graduate of Massey University in 1982, Douglas holds a Bachelor of Regional Planning (Hons). She became a full member of the institute in 2000. She began her planning career at the Gisborne City Council, and subsequently the Cook County Council in Gisborne.

In 1985 she became the planning manager of a consultancy based in Whanganui, followed by her own practice between 1991 and 2002. She then became a director of Zomac Planning Solutions, where she remains today.

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