Open source transforms the digital experience for district plan users

Catalyst supports a local government client in transforming the digital experience for district plan information.

Background

Before May 2024, accessing District Plan rules for New Zealand local governments required a manual process. The public could only access District Plan information, such as zoning rules in a PDF. Subsequently, users would need to visit a webpage and filter through more than 50 PDF chapters to identify what rules, updates, and changes were relevant and separately associate these rules with an online map.

In April 2019, the Central Government announced National Planning Standards to ensure greater consistency in Regional and District plans that needed to be actioned. These Standards included requirements around electronic accessibility to:

  • improve the accessibility and usability of content;
  • standardise how information is presented;
  • ensure digital content is searchable; and
  • enable ease of navigation between content.

Opportunity

Compliance with the National Planning Standards was a key project driver for a local government client. It was also recognised that the project provided an opportunity to improve the management of District Plan content, which historically had been managed inconsistently. The project sought to achieve improvements in content management by enforcing a workflow for changes to content that:

  • recorded a clear history of changes made;
  • assigned names, dates, and roles to workflow actions; and
  • provided maximum flexibility to change plans without relying on technical support.

The local government client went to the market to find a service provider to support their transition to an interactive electronic platform for the District Plan.

Solution

The local government client partnered with Catalyst to develop ePlan (electronic plan), providing an interactive experience for District Plan users and improved content management.

Catalyst worked closely with the local government client, taking time to understand what they wanted to achieve to support District Plan users. The teams decided to use an Agile approach to work collaboratively. Catalyst ran training sessions with the client to introduce the framework before development started. This involved fortnightly sprints, sprint planning meetings, and demos to keep the team in the loop at every stage. The client commented on the benefits of using the Agile framework throughout the project. GitLab was also used to communicate time estimates for features and enabled the client to perform peer reviews for all changes.

To create a seamless user experience, the solution needed to integrate with existing client systems, including Geographic information and other information management systems. The team decided to use Wagtail as the CMS framework. The new ePlan development was done primarily in Python, using Django as the library framework. To display the District Plan maps in the ePlan, we used Leaflet to work with the Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) basemaps.

Streamlined workflows

A laptop open displaying a map highlighting different sections of the location

The development of ePlan transforms how content is managed and how District Plan users interact with District Plan information.

Enhanced content management: The client created their content in Microsoft Word and would then translate their content for their CMS. As part of the rebuild, Catalyst wanted to streamline workflows to reduce double-ups. So, a migration system was developed to seamlessly import documents and turn them into site content by:

  • carrying across formatting, tables and images; and
  • creating sub-pages based on their custom MS Word styles.

Automatic version tracking: Each time a plan is changed, the version is recorded so the public can review previous versions to see how rules have changed over time. Additionally, the client can annotate sections in plans to indicate (and link to) a proposed change, improving public transparency in the plan-making process.

Introducing approval workflows: To review content, editors can compare a staged content version with the actual site content to quickly identify changes. Furthermore, each chapter can be included in an 'approval workflow' ensuring pages are approved before publishing. Building this functionality in the back-end of ePlan, rather than a separate application, makes chapter edits easier and enables a clear review and verification record of all changes to be captured.

A flexible platform: ePlan provides flexibility in managing the District Plan content displayed from a searched (or clicked on) property. Because ePlan was developed using open source information, District Plan maps can be changed in-house using existing client systems and processes, with these changes flowing directly into ePlan. District Plan content can be updated without relying on vendor or technical support by uploading a new chapter or amending existing content in ePlan.

Improved user experience

Now, instead of working through multiple PDFs of different District Plans and visiting another webpage to find mapped information, the ePlan pulls everything together. Users can enter an address or location, returning a mapped and written District Plan information specific to that property.

ePlan is securely hosted on Catalyst Cloud, ensuring a reliable performance. The client has access to a UAT environment on a similar setup to test new developments on the platform before these go live. With an easy-to-use system and the flexibility of open source software, the client can fully control and grow their planning processes without vendor lock-in.

As a result, the client is now not only compliant with national planning standards but also has an easy-to-use system for plan maintenance purposes. Plus, the client has improved the digital experience for District Plan users in the community they serve.

Results

Feedback from District Plan users and the client's Customer Services team based on interactions with the community has been very positive. ePlan has made the experience of interacting with the District Plan far simpler.

A laptop open displaying a map highlighting different sections of the location

"It was an extremely positive experience working with the Catalyst developers during the project– their breadth of knowledge and understanding of our project needs was a key factor in the success of ePlan. ePlan has transformed how we manage the maintenance of the district plan and has enhanced the digital experience for District Plan users and others in the community in their interaction with the District Plan.”

- Client project lead

An enhanced digital experience

At Catalyst, we enjoy transforming the user experience for our clients and their users. We are proud to have supported a local government client to transition from a clunky outdated process to a smooth and seamless digital experience. Contact us to discuss how we could help your organisation too.

Services provided

  • Project management
  • Managed Cloud hosting
  • GIS data integration
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