Hill Young Cooper offers a team with a diverse and broad base of experience across contemporary planning and environmental issues. As a result our individual staff are in demand from local authorities and private sector clients to undertake hearing commissioner and expert witness roles in Council and Environment Court hearings and mediation processes. Directors David Hill, Mark St. Clair and David Mead are accredited hearing commissioners and have sat on resource management hearings for local and regional authorities throughout the North Island. Our directors and consultants also appear in expert witness roles for a range of private and public sector clients, and in reporting officer roles for local authorities. As a team we are renowned for our pragmatic and independent advice and decision making.

Hill Young Cooper worked with the NZ Aggregate & Quarry Association, the Ministry for the Environment and Local Government New Zealand to prepare an industry planning guidance note. The note was officially launched at a function at Parliament Grand Hall in March 2010 and has been placed on the "Quality Planning Website" which is hosted by the Ministry. The guidance note promotes best practice in dealing with the complex range and scale of resource management issues associated with the aggregate and quarry industry.

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Hill Young Cooper has provided ongoing resource consent advice to the Eden Park Trust Board for the past six years. . This has included advice to secure the consents under the RMA for additional night games, redevelopment of the stadium to facilitate Rugby World Cup 2011 and consents under the RWC Empowering Act 2010 for the temporary activities and structures required for the 11 Rugby World Cup matches at Eden Park. These projects involved significant consent management skills in terms of the specialist input required, working with landscape architects, stadium architects, acoustic engineers, traffic and lighting engineers and collaboration with the clients ( Eden Park Trust, the Eden Park Redevelopment Board and RNZ 2011)

Hill Young Cooper works with a range of industrial and commercial clients to assist those businesses in complying with the requirements of the Resource Management Act and Regional Plans, such as the Auckland Regional Council's Air, Land Water Plan.

Our services include:

• Preparing Environmental Management Systems covering multiple sites
• Preparing site specific Environmental Management Plans (EMPs)
• Undertaking independent Environmental Audits
• Preparing resource consent applications for stormwater, industrial or trade process and air discharges
• Advising on contaminant storage and methods to reduce stormwater contamination.

Our aim is to assist businesses in improving environment practices on their sites.

MfE has engaged HYC to carry out research to help them better understand the potential impact of the Proposed National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity on local authorities. This involved an extensive analysis of current plan provisions and a series of stakeholder meetings.

Hill Young Cooper worked with New Zealand Winegrowers, the Ministry for the Environment, Local Government New Zealand and Bell Gully to prepare an industry planning guidance note. The note was officially launched at a function at Parliament Grand Hall and has been placed on the "Quality Planning Website" which is hosted by the Ministry. The note will assist District and Regional Councils to appropriately address winegrowing resource management issues through District and Regional Plans.

Kapiti Coast District Council are carrying out a review of their current District Plan in preparation for the development of a second generation Plan.  HYC were engaged by the Council to help them better understand the extent of housing choice and affordability issues in the District. Working with Tricia Austin from the University of Auckland, HYC identified a range of actions that could be taken to extend housing choices within the suburban context of the Kapiti Coast District including minor household units, provision for duplex-type units and better designed infill development.