Date: |
13 Jul 2026, 12.00PM – 1.00PM |
duration: |
1 hr |
Location: |
Online |
Cost: |
Free event |
RMA reform is reshaping the role of spatial planning in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Spatial plans will no longer be just long-term vision documents or maps of preferred growth. They are being positioned as a key part of the decision-making system that connects land use, infrastructure, funding, environmental constraints, and delivery.
This webinar will explore what that shift means for engineers, infrastructure providers, councils, consultants, and others working across the built environment. It will cover the emerging role of regional spatial plans, how spatial planning differs from regulatory planning, and why infrastructure evidence, sequencing, investment logic, and implementation need to be considered much earlier than they often have been.
The session will also discuss how spatial planning can help manage growth pressures, avoid ad hoc development, support better infrastructure prioritisation, and create clearer links between strategic direction and delivery. The focus will be practical: what changes, what matters, and how the sector can prepare.
Speaker bio
Matthew Prasad is Technical Director – Spatial and Urban Strategy at Harrison Grierson, where he leads the firm’s spatial and urban strategy capability and manages its Design Studio. Recently, the minister appointed him as a commissioner to Plan change 120 in Auckland, selecting him as one of four ministerial appointments.
Matthew has over 20 years’ experience across architecture, urban design, infrastructure strategy, development advisory, and spatial planning. His work focuses on the intersection between growth, infrastructure, funding, land use and delivery, with experience across local government, central government, iwi partners, private developers, and multidisciplinary consultancy environments.
Before joining Harrison Grierson, Matthew worked in Auckland Council’s Infrastructure Strategy Unit, where he led strategic work on infrastructure prioritisation, cost of growth, and the integration of land use, transport, and infrastructure planning. He has also led and contributed to future development strategies, urban regeneration projects, housing feasibility studies, structure planning, and complex consenting strategies across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Matthew is a Certified RMA Commissioner and is currently a member of the Independent Hearings Panel for Auckland Council’s Plan Change 120. He is particularly interested in how the new planning system can move spatial planning beyond visioning, and into clearer decisions about sequencing, infrastructure investment and deliverable urban outcomes.
Spatial planning will play a much stronger role in how Aotearoa, New Zealand decides where growth goes, what infrastructure is needed, and what should be protected. This webinar will cut through the reform noise and explain what engineers, infrastructure providers, and built-environment professionals need to understand as spatial plans move from high-level strategy into real delivery decisions.
RMA reform is reshaping the role of spatial planning in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Spatial plans will no longer be just long-term vision documents or maps of preferred growth. They are being positioned as a key part of the decision-making system that connects land use, infrastructure, funding, environmental constraints, and delivery.
This webinar will explore what that shift means for engineers, infrastructure providers, councils, consultants, and others working across the built environment. It will cover the emerging role of regional spatial plans, how spatial planning differs from regulatory planning, and why infrastructure evidence, sequencing, investment logic, and implementation need to be considered much earlier than they often have been.
The session will also discuss how spatial planning can help manage growth pressures, avoid ad hoc development, support better infrastructure prioritisation, and create clearer links between strategic direction and delivery. The focus will be practical: what changes, what matters, and how the sector can prepare.
Speaker bio
Matthew Prasad is Technical Director – Spatial and Urban Strategy at Harrison Grierson, where he leads the firm’s spatial and urban strategy capability and manages its Design Studio. Recently, the minister appointed him as a commissioner to Plan change 120 in Auckland, selecting him as one of four ministerial appointments.
Matthew has over 20 years’ experience across architecture, urban design, infrastructure strategy, development advisory, and spatial planning. His work focuses on the intersection between growth, infrastructure, funding, land use and delivery, with experience across local government, central government, iwi partners, private developers, and multidisciplinary consultancy environments.
Before joining Harrison Grierson, Matthew worked in Auckland Council’s Infrastructure Strategy Unit, where he led strategic work on infrastructure prioritisation, cost of growth, and the integration of land use, transport, and infrastructure planning. He has also led and contributed to future development strategies, urban regeneration projects, housing feasibility studies, structure planning, and complex consenting strategies across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Matthew is a Certified RMA Commissioner and is currently a member of the Independent Hearings Panel for Auckland Council’s Plan Change 120. He is particularly interested in how the new planning system can move spatial planning beyond visioning, and into clearer decisions about sequencing, infrastructure investment and deliverable urban outcomes.
