Success at the 2024 RMLA Awards

Boffa Miskell had a memorable night at the 2024 RMLA Awards dinner, taking home two Project awards and one for Technical Documentation.

The Sandy Point Domain Masterplan and the Waikawa Integrated Catchment Management Plan, both multi-disciplinary projects from the South Island, earned top Project Award honours at the annual Resource Management Law Association awards. The work of Tauranga-based planners and landscape planners played a role in a multi-agency win for Tauranga City Council - Plan Change 33 Landscape Qualifying Matters Assessments.

Boffa Miskell and our client Invercargill City Council were recognised for the Sandy Point Domain Masterplan. The Judges' Citation noted the project's "... collaborative and innovative approach to deliver an exemplar masterplan with an overarching 50-year strategy for the Sandy Point Domain."

This masterplan sets a long-term vision and plan for land use, infrastructure, ecological conservation, natural hazard management, cultural experience and recreational activities within the 2000-hectare domain. 

Boffa Miskell landscape planners, landscape architects and climate change specialists worked collaboratively with the Invercargill City Council’s Parks and Recreation Department, through a deliberate staged process, building to an overarching strategy, key moves and 10- 25- and 50-year visions for the domain. 

The Sandy Point Domain Masterplan is innovative in the sense that it has been created and endorsed prior to development of a Management Plan. This ensures that spatial planning, and strategic thinking on a 50-year scale, informs other decisions.

Boffa Miskell and the Ministry for the Environment | Manatū Mō Te Taiao earned a Highly Commended Project Award for the Waikawa Integrated Catchment Management Plan. The Judges' Citation praised the outcome for "... its innovative creation of an interactive environmental management tool that articulates the community’s aspirations for the river catchment."

The Ministry for the Environment appointed Boffa Miskell through the Essential Freshwater Fund (EFF), to assist iwi, communities, organisations, and businesses in the Waikawa River catchment to develop an integrated catchment management plan to collate and express the community’s aspirations for the Waikawa River catchment, and to list actions to help achieve those goals.

Boffa Miskell landscape architects, ecologists and planners, along with our specialists in engagement, climate change and GIS/Geo-mapping worked collaboratively with government and industry stakeholders, local iwi and the wider community to create a management plan that reflects the enthusiasm, collective knowledge and expertise in the area.

Isthmus Group, Boffa Miskell, Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council were joint winners of the Technical Documentation Award for Tauranga City Council Plan Change 33, Landscape Qualifying Matters Assessments (Bay of Plenty). The Judges' Citation recognised the work for "...technical innovation, collaboration and excellence in the assessment of the landscape environmental constraints to residential intensification within Tauranga City."

Tauranga City Council’s Plan Change 33: Enabling Housing Supply (PC33) enables residential intensification across the city, implementing the National Policy Statement for Urban Development (NPS-UD) and the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS).

As part of the PC33 process, the policies and objectives of the Tauranga City Plan (City Plan) were strengthened to protect the landscape values relating to ONFL and natural character across Tauranga, with specific consideration given to the intensity (height and density) of residential development and its proximity to important landscapes.

The approaches to the Landscape Qualifying Matters Assessments were unique and differed depending on the scale and complexity of the landscape values to be considered. The broader (city wide) assessment used a more iterative and collaborative approach to assessment, with Isthmus, Boffa Miskell, Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council working together, testing scenarios, identifying methods to manage effects, and jointly developing policy responses.

Landscape Assessments relied upon the findings of the Natural Character Assessment of the Bay of Plenty Coastal Environment (Boffa Miskell, 2013) and landscape values identified within the Tauranga City Plan and Western Bay of Plenty District Plan. 

A Section 32 Analysis was prepared by Tauranga City Council, with input from Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Boffa Miskell, as part of the PC33 process.