Element Planning

03/01/2022

A busy end to the year and a race to the finish line securing a non notified resource consent for the 10,000 person Gold Rush Music Festival at the Waihi A&P Showgrounds. A great boost for the local economy and I hope lots of fun and smiles for many today, after a difficult year.

23/08/2021

We are continuing our work as usual during Lockdown Level 4, with the exception of site visits that need to be virtual and children that need to be fed every five minutes! 😏

17/06/2021

We are so pleased to have been able to help Waihi Beach School with a donation towards their digital equity project, a worthy cause.

We are working to reduce inequities for our school whānau by increasing equity with digital tools in our classroom environment.

28/09/2020

We work very hard to provide the best service and communication to our clients. We would love to be nominated!

Be in quick to nominate the business, team or individual that has been outstanding in 2019 and 2020. Nominations close this coming Sunday! https://www.katikatiwaihibeachcommunityawards.co.nz/
The categories are:
BEST ARTS INDIVIDUAL
BEST SPORTS INDIVIDUAL
BEST SPORTS COACH
BEST SPORTS TEAM
BEST VOLUNTEER INDIVIDUAL
BEST VOLUNTEER GROUP
RETAIL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
SERVICE BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
HOSPITALITY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
​TOURISM AWARD

01/09/2020

Oh dear; We have been so busy helping our clients, we missed celebrating that we have now been in business for 6 years. Better late than never. Happy Birthday to us!! 👏🏻🎉🎊

23/07/2020

Great news for Planning in NZ? Urban environments in particular areas will no longer be required to provide parking (but can if they want to). Our main city centres will not be allowed to restrict the height of buildings to less than six stories. These changes need to be implemented by 2022.

Government moves to stop councils imposing height limits below six storeys or minimum numbers of carparks in dramatic bid to increase housing density.

23/07/2020

One of the projects Michelle is currently working on receiving some attention in the media today.

Developer who moved a historic church to the town is hoping to bring seven new shops to the area.

29/05/2020

Lots of people have been asking us about the new rule that allow exemptions for 30m2 buildings.

If you would like to build a 30m2 structure whether it’s a shed, garage, or sleepout, please note the following regarding whether you need “consent”:

🔹The District Plan rules STILL apply. 30m2 buildings are not exempt from needing to comply with your District/Unitary Plan and you may find you still need a resource consent even if you don’t need a building consent. So don’t go building anything without checking your district plan rules first.

🔹When the exemption references “sleep out”. They mean a building for sleeping in with no bathroom or kitchen facilities. As soon as you put sanitary systems in, you need a building consent. You can also have a separate definition under the District Plan for what constitutes a sleep out. So you might also need a resource consent whether it has sanitary systems or not.

🔹You also still need to build any structure to building code standard (so ask a builder about this side of things we only deal in resource consents)

🔹If you are confused or want further clarification comment below with your questions and I’d be happy to help.

Remember building consents and resource consents are two different things with two different purposes. The 30m2 exemption only applies to building consents not resource consents.

Michelle

27/08/2019

Yesterday I appeared on behalf of the Waikato District Council evaluating evidence and making a recommendation to a Hearings Panel on whether or not Pokeno get a new Countdown Supermarket in the Main Street. I started working on this particular project in Nov 2018 but my history with the site goes back to 2015 when they were seeking consent for a smaller supermarket.... Growth in the area has been so well beyond predicted levels that they rethought their plans and came back for this bigger 3000m2 store! The design includes a snazzy seating area for people wanting to stop off and enjoy an ice cream that Pokeno is so famous for. What do you think? - Michelle

15/02/2019

Although we are heavily involved in the initial stages of our clients development projects (as that's what we specialise in - the hard work of the consenting process!), we don't always get to see the final finished product.

So, it was nice to be able to attend the Waihi Beach Hotel to see the Drax Project perform live in a one off concert there back on the 5th January 2019!

Michelle was enlisted to help the Waihi Beach Hotel in obtaining resource consent to host this event. The time-frame for this project was challenging, as was the issue of noise and traffic generated by the event, but Michelle worked tirelessly dealing with Council to ensure that this consent was delivered on time for the Hotel to host this concert.

The music was great, the turnout was amazing and we had a really enjoyable night!

15/02/2019

Element Planning was proud to sponsor the Western Bay of Plenty Year 6 Cricket Team in their recent trip to Hawkes Bay to participate in the annual Riverbend Cricket Tournament.

The boys did themselves and the Bay of Plenty proud by not only demonstrating great team work and dedication over 6 games of cricket in 4 (very hot!) days, but they also recorded 6 wins out of 6 playing some lovely, entertaining cricket along the way.

Well done team!

29/10/2018

Just over a year ago we moved our Planning Consultancy Element Planning to the very small town of Waihi Beach. Lots of naysayers told us we would lose our clients, that they wouldn’t want to work with a team so far away, and they questioned how we would deliver and maintain the quality of work.

This weekend we will be heading to the Waihi Beach - Katikati Business Excellence awards where we are FINALISTS in the category of Innovation. We haven’t lost our clients....instead we have grown our business by 168% in the last financial year.

So grateful to be living in an age where Technology provides the flexibility to live the life you choose.