At Barker & Associates we pride ourselves in providing timely, accurate and cost-effective planning and urban design advice to a diverse range of public and private sector clients.
Our expert planning team understands that securing the right consents is critical to getting your development off the ground. We support landowners and developers across Aotearoa with strategic, well-prepared resource consent and subdivision applications.
Whether you are redeveloping a site, subdividing land, or progressing a commercial project, our locally based planners can assist from early site feasibility through to preparing Assessments of Environmental Effects, lodging applications, and managing council post-lodgement liaisons. We coordinate technical inputs, identify potential risks early, and streamline the process to reduce delays and uncertainty.
Our team has extensive experience with non-notified, limited, and publicly notified applications, as well as complex, multi-stage subdivisions, integrated land use consents, and Environment Court processes, including mediation and expert evidence.
With a proven track record across both the Resource Management Act and Fast-track Approvals Act consenting pathways, we provide practical, solution-focused planning advice to take your project from concept to consent with clarity and confidence.
Our urban design and master planning team bring together urban designers, architects, landscape architects, engineers, and planners who know how to blend creative vision with regulatory reality. We deliver solutions that are context-sensitive, sustainable, and socially enriching.
We embed thorough statutory understanding from day one, navigating the complexities of New Zealand’s resource management system, ensuring that your solutions are deliverable. Our approach balances design ambition with commercial acumen, ensuring that our solutions that are both visionary and financially viable.
From strategic master planning projects and greenfield residential masterplans to urban regeneration, residential intensification, and mixed-use schemes, we help shape development at every scale. Whether it’s a major masterplan or community-focussed project, our expertise delivers practical, achievable, and enduring outcomes.
B&A works on district plans, spatial strategies, and planning frameworks from the bottom of the South Island in Murihiku Southland, to Te Tai Tokerau Northland. We handle the full spectrum of plan development work – from submissions on plan changes to comprehensive district plan reviews, targeted plan changes and future development strategies.
Our specialist team handles every stage of the process, including scoping, issues and options papers, s32 reporting, consultation and engagement, plan drafting, working with technical experts, s42A reporting and preparation of expert evidence, mediation, expert conferencing, and appearing at council and Environment Court hearings.
We also lead spatial planning and strategic documents at regional and local levels. This includes future development strategies, spatial growth scenarios, and iwi engagement, with several team members holding IAP2 Certificates of Engagement. Our experience preparing councils for mandatory regional spatial planning, combined with our direct work with the Ministry for the Environment on national policy statements, means we understand both the big picture and the practical details.
B&A’s landscape architecture team unites design creativity with planning and urban design expertise to shape functional, attractive, and enduring environments. We deliver everything from Landscape and Visual Effects Assessments (LVEAs) and landscape design guidelines, to landscape masterplans and landscape design services – bringing projects from early vision through to supporting implementation.
Our practice bridges creative design with statutory know-how, producing outcomes that are both visionary and buildable. Whether it’s large-scale masterplans, infrastructure projects, or detailed site designs, we balance innovation with practical delivery.
Our portfolio spans ecological restorations, greenfield subdivisions, infrastructure corridors, and major urban developments. Environmental stewardship drives everything we do – integrating sustainable design, protecting natural systems, and fostering biodiversity to create resilient landscapes that benefit both clients and communities.
Our Te Ao Māori team work alongside iwi, hapū and whānau trusts to advance papakāinga and Māori led development proposals, and to prepare submissions and consent applications on their behalf. We assist iwi in plan and policy making processes, providing expert planning advice with their interests in mind.
For large developments, we lead respectful and timely engagement on behalf of applicants to ensure iwi and hapū voices are central to project outcomes. We collaborate on the preparation of Cultural Values Assessments and provide representation throughout submissions and consenting processes. Our team also supports councils with policy development, decision-making, and papakāinga toolkits, and helps negotiate Mana Whakahono ā Rohe and joint management agreements.
From papakāinga initiatives to large-scale projects, we embed iwi, hapū, and whānau aspirations into planning outcomes that respect tikanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Property decisions start with understanding what you can actually build. Our team has extensive expertise in the preparation of comprehensive due diligence reports and expert planning advice that cuts through the complexity – assessing planning constraints, zoning provisions, site-specific overlays, and relevant regional and district plan requirements so you can invest with confidence.
From early-stage site feasibility assessments to navigating complex consenting pathways early in the project lifecycle, we help clients navigate the Resource Management Act and local planning frameworks with confidence and clarity. Whether for residential, commercial, or infrastructure projects, our advice is grounded in current legislation, policy analysis, and practical planning outcomes to support informed decision-making.
We support our clients to understand and plan for the impacts of climate change and natural hazard events. With a focus on practical, implementable outcomes. Our work brings together policy, science, engagement and governance to develop adaptation pathways and actions that respond to uncertainty, long-term planning and local context.
Our team has led and contributed to complex adaptation programmes across New Zealand, including adaptation planning, national policy and research, and place-based pilot projects. We combine strong statutory planning expertise, adaptation planning skills and experience, with experience in partnership-based engagement and co-development alongside iwi, stakeholders and communities.
We are experienced in translating technical information into clear frameworks and decision-making tools, supporting integration across strategies, plans and infrastructure programmes. Our approach is evidence-based, and tailored for people and place, helping build resilience while navigating legislative requirements and community expectations.
We support our clients to understand, plan for and manage natural hazard risk through robust, practical and place-based planning responses. Our work brings together statutory planning, policy development, technical evidence, engagement and implementation to help councils, government agencies and project teams navigate complex natural hazard issues.
Our team has extensive experience with multiple hazards across Aotearoa New Zealand, including flooding, coastal hazards, landslides, liquefaction, fault rupture, tsunami and wildfire. We have supported local and central government through plan reviews, national policy development, research projects, consent processes and spatial planning, providing advice that is grounded in evidence and responsive to legislative requirements, community expectations and local context.
We are experienced in navigating technical hazard and risk information and developing clear planning frameworks, policy options and decision-making tools. Our approach recognises the need to manage risk over time and changing climate scenarios, while responding to growth, existing land use, infrastructure investment, and the social, cultural and environmental values of place.
