Keeping development balanced
Name: Oli MonthuleMcIntosh
Job: Central Otago District Council senior planner
QWhat jobs did you do before this one? Before graduating as a planner I worked mostly in the hospitality industry and used to spend many of my weekends and holidays selling food at festivals up and down the east coast of Australia.
In 2012 I took a working sabbatical and completed my dive master internship in Thailand. I got to explore the best dive spots on the west coast of Thailand and the Mergui Archipelago of Myanmar.
My first planning job was with an innercity council in Sydney in 2009. After taking time out to complete my honours thesis I moved back to my home town of Byron Bay to work as a planning officer for the Byron Shire Council, where my father was also working as a planner. Initially, I had some reservations about working in the same office as my father but it turned out to be a fantastic experience on both a professional and personal level for both of us.
Several years later I started my own planning consultancy.
In 2017 my partner and I decided to jump the ditch and lay down roots in the South Island and I took a job with the Central Otago District Council pretty soon after that.
QWhat qualifications and training do you need? To be a planner in New Zealand you should hold, or be eligible to hold, a professional membership with the New Zealand Planning Institute. In order to be eligible you are generally required to hold a bachelor or master’s degree in town planning or resource management.
QWhat personal skills do you need? As planners we are constantly balancing a wide array of interests and professional opinions in order to come up with the best decision or policy overall. As such, it is important to be able to keep a clear head and maintain sight of the big picture, in the face of potential information overload.
We are often also faced with situations that can be very emotionally charged, so it is important to be able to be
sympathetic while maintaining fairness and neutrality. It is also vital to have the emotional maturity to be able to protect yourself in these situations, as well as to be able to recognise and manage our own inherent biases.
QAny physical requirements? Planning is primarily a desk job, and as with all desk jobs it is really important to make sure you balance this with some healthy physical activity and stress relief outside of work.
QAre there any particular health and safety issues? We do have to visit construction sites and are frequently seen at the sides of highways and roads searching though a pair of binoculars for a set of profile poles in the far off distance. I also find myself doing the occasional inspection in some pretty remote locations.
QWhat do you do on a daily basis? Primarily I process applications for resource consent. This involves following a legislated process that aims to ensure all relevant matters are considered and the environmental effects of a particular proposal are properly assessed. This is all compiled within reports in which I ultimately make recommendations which are then endorsed (or otherwise) by my manager, council’s hearings panel or an independent commissioner, depending on the nature of the particular application.
QWhat specialty areas are involved in your work? As a senior planner I’m frequently required to attend hearings. I am also looking forward to playing a lead role in the district plan review.
QWhat is the best thing about your job? The planning system can be very daunting for many people and I have always got a lot of satisfaction out of helping regular people, not just navigate through it but also, hopefully, to see the benefits.
QWhat is the most interesting thing you’ve ever done in your job? In a previous role I did a lot of planning work for some very large Australian music festivals (think East Coast Blues and Roots, Falls Festival, Splendour in the Grass). The range and complexity of issues, as well as the huge amount of public interest involved with these jobs, stand out to me as some of the most interesting and challenging planning work I have done to date.
QHow has the job changed since you started? Since working at CODC I have been promoted to the role of senior planner. This role has come with additional responsibilities, especially as a mentor to other members of the team and also with regard to the district plan review.
QWhat are the highs of the job? Getting to meet all sorts of people from the community and helping them find a way to bring their ‘‘big ideas’’ into reality.
QWhat are the lows of the job? Unfortunately, despite the good intentions of most council employees, people are often very quick to point the finger of blame at council as the cause of all manner of perceived problems and hardships.
QWhat’s the strangest thing you’ve had to do? I’ve had some pretty unusual site inspections, including ones that have involved me having to ride a mountain bike and, on one occasion, a surfboard.
QWhat is the salary range for the job? Planning officers typically earn between $67,000 and $105,000, depending on skill level and seniority.
QWhat would you say to people considering planning as a career? Planning is a fantastic career that is in very high demand and can take you around the world if you want it to. Unfortunately, however, being a planner is nothing like SimCity and if you don’t have a mind for legislation and process then you might want to consider something else.
QWhere will you be 20 years from now? Hopefully still in Central but working only parttime behind a desk and spending much more time enjoying our extraordinary great outdoors.