Resource Management / Environmental / Planning

With a true national reach, our resource management team has a recognised and leading reputation for successfully delivering complex projects in New Zealand.

We provide strategic advice and representation on significant projects, complex and controversial planning review process and environmental due diligence.

Our team has built a reputation on providing an efficient client-focused service that consistently achieves results – earning us recognition by Doyles Guide and Legal 500 again in 2025.

We are regularly involved in mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes, as well as public hearings before local authorities and the Environment Court.

As long-standing advisors to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, we understand the significance that plan development has on the ability for mana whenua to have a meaningful role in ensuring te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori are embedded into District and Regional planning documents.

Our team has developed a well-established trusted network of strong working relationships with New Zealand’s leading consultants and expert witnesses. We regularly lead large teams of consultants in delivering the outcomes that our clients seek, including on large-scale infrastructure projects and plan review processes.

We have experience across a wide variety of fields and issues. We are particularly recognised for our expertise in retail, minerals and energy, land subdivision and development, and mana whenua matters. This includes:

• providing advice in relation to Fast Track approvals
• resource consenting
• climate change
• complex District and Regional Plan formulation
• dealing with designations and associated Public Works Act processes.

We have led the successful completion of many significant and controversial projects including supermarkets and retail developments, mineral extraction projects, educational facilities and hotel and residential developments.

Recent work highlights include:

• Woolworths New Zealand Limited
  Obtaining resource consent for several Woolworths supermarket developments around New Zealand, including in Otago, Canterbury and Wellington. We co-ordinate large teams of expert witnesses and act as lead counsel at multiple contentious publicly notified hearings for retail developments. We have also advised Woolworths on numerous plan formulation and review proceedings across the country including Christchurch, Dunedin, Kapiti and Selwyn.

• KiwiRail Holdings Limited
  Advising and representing KiwiRail on various plan-making processes, resource consenting and enforcement matters. This includes acting for KiwiRail on Plan Change 13 to the Bay of Plenty’s Regional Natural Resources Plan, Private Plan Change 13 to the Hamilton City Council District Plan and providing legal representation on environmental matters in the Environment Court.

• Bathurst Resources Limited and BT Mining Limited
  Providing strategic advice on plan-making, resource consenting and enforcement matters in respect of Bathurst Resources and BT Mining’s operations across New Zealand, including the West Coast Regional Policy Statement, Te Tai o Poutini West Coast Plan, Waikato District Plan Review and Waikato Regional Policy Statement. This has involved large scale mediations and negotiations through complex resource management issues relating to environmental bottom lines, offsetting and plan drafting.

• Santana Minerals Limited
  Advising on the Bendigo-Ophir project in Central Otago which is New Zealand’s most significant gold deposit in over four decades.

• Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu
  Advising and representing Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu in the development of the Marlborough Environmental Plan, Dunedin 2GP, Christchurch Replacement Plan, Otago Regional Policy Statement and Gore District Plan. During these proceedings our team has advocated on significant cultural matters as well as landscape, biodiversity and freshwater issues.

• University of Otago
  Leading the resource consenting and public hearing for Hākitekura – an academic retreat for research and teaching, and the University’s first permanent presence in Queenstown. 

• Te Motu A Hiaroa Charitable Trust
  Advising and representing Te Motu a Hiaroa Charitable Trust on an application for resource consent to establish a marae in Māngere. Te Motu a Hiaroa Charitable Trust is comprised of representatives from Waikato-Tainui, Te Ahiwaru and Te Kawerau ā Maki.  

• Cardrona Alpine Resort Limited
  Advising Cardrona Alpine Resort Limited on the Proposed Queenstown Lakes District Plan, including in relation to its appeal to the Environment Court. This has involved the successful negotiation and agreement of an enabling regime for an expanded ski resort development in a nationally significant Outstanding Natural Landscape context. We continue to advise Cardrona in relation to ongoing ski field development.

• Bespoke resort and hotel developments
  We have advised a wide number of clients in relation to hotel and resort developments, including Blackthorn Limited, Shundi Queenstown Limited, University of Otago and Waimarino Queenstown Limited.

• Intensification Projects
  We advise a wide range of developers on proposed subdivisions and residential intensification developments across the country. We are also providing advice and legal representation on various Intensification Planning Instruments around New Zealand, including in Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch and Queenstown.
• Rural Luxury Dwellings
  We have recognised expertise in the resource consenting of luxury residential dwellings in sensitive rural landscapes in New Zealand. We regularly act for international and domestic high-net-worth clients to unlock their luxury home dreams, including through environmental processes.