Twenty years of consents, laid out as evidence
01 — The brief
Sell planning advice, which nobody can see
A planning consultancy has no product photography. What it has is a record: consents granted, notified applications survived, plan changes submitted on, and clients who came back for the next project.
Civitas has been securing consents for Auckland's schools, churches, clubs, medical practices and commercial developers since 2003, including every major development at the St Kentigern campuses since 1998.
The brief was a site that puts that record in front of the reader: the projects, the outcomes, the commentary on where planning law is heading, and the client voices, so the first conversation starts from credibility rather than from scratch.
Forty nine projects, each with its outcome Project pages state the site, the constraint and the result, including how the consent was obtained. Non-notified approvals for complicated schemes are the whole argument for hiring a planner, so they are said out loud rather than implied.
By the numbers
The record, published
Feature
Not every visitor is ready to engage a planner. The site gives that reader something useful instead of losing them: a plain English guide to the resource consent process, in exchange for an email address, plus a mailing list for plan change news.
- Downloadable guide to the resource consent process
- Mailing list for plan change and RMA reform updates
- Client testimonials published in full, with names and roles
- FAQs that answer what a planning consultant actually does
- Project pages grouped by the kind of development
- Contact paths on every page, including the article pages
Institutional work
Schools, churches and clubs are a specialism, not a sideline
Much of the portfolio is community and institutional development, which is its own kind of planning.
Aquatic centres, arts centres, classrooms, chapels, bowling clubs and football clubhouses come with notified consent risk, neighbours, heritage and notable trees, and boards who need the process explained to them.
The projects section is structured so a school business manager can find the school work, and a developer can find the apartments and industrial parks, from the same list.
02 — The process
How we got there
- 01
Auditing twenty years of work
The existing project record was gathered, sorted and written up as consistent case entries with the outcome stated, which is what makes a long list readable.
- 02
Designing for professional credibility
A clean, typographic interface where the projects and the writing carry the page, with the two flagship school projects featured on the home page.
- 03
Building projects as records
Every project is a record with imagery, description and outcome, so the list keeps growing without a developer being involved.
- 04
Publishing and the mailing list
Planning commentary, a subscribe path and the consent process guide as a download, so the site keeps working between enquiries.
- 05
Testimonials and FAQs
Client quotes in full and a FAQ section that answers the basics, including how to pronounce Civitas.
One project, one page The Diocesan School Aquatic Centre page carries the scale of the build, two pools, a moveable floor, a fitness centre and a 400 seat gallery, and the planning result that made it possible.
03 — The outcome
A consultancy that argues its own case
The site does the qualifying that used to happen in a first meeting.
Prospective clients arrive having read a comparable project and, often, the planning commentary, so the conversation starts at scope rather than at credentials.
The consent process guide keeps collecting contacts from people who are early in a development and will need a planner later.
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