The first thing I want to ask George Greiss, the former Mayor of Campbelltown, is why he has become a planner after retiring from politics in 2024.
Surely, I say to him, you didn’t dream about becoming a planner when you were a kid.
“No, I did not,’’ he says.
“This all sprung up out of a council debate in 2012, when someone said to me, you’re not an expert, our officers are experts, we should listen to them.
“I thought about that for a while, and decided maybe he had a point and I should become an expert.
“And that’s when I started studying planning, and did my Masters and PhD.’’
His Masters degree was in Property Development, while the doctorate (PhD) was in Urban Planning.
Greiss was on Campbelltown Council for 16 years, the last three as Mayor.
He also served as council’s representative on the planning panel of experts for five years and chaired council’s planning committee for four years.
When he retired in 2024, starting a planning business was the no-brainer next step in his working life, and that’s exactly what he has done, starting with becoming a full member of the Planning Institute of Australia.
In his first year, Greiss didn’t do any work in Campbelltown, a conscious choice, to put some space from when he was a councillor and his new pursuit.
Satisfied enough time has elapsed, he now accepts planning work in the place he has called home for almost 25 years.
“I’ve got a few jobs in Campbelltown now,’’ he says.
“I have done some work on factories, changes to configuration, lift the roof up, that kind of thing, renovation work, for which you need to get council approval.
“Remedial work I’ve done a lot of. Why? People get that letter from council and need someone to help them, and that’s where I come in.
“As a planner, I can do pretty much everything.
“From a granny flat, extensions to your house or remedial work, – the house is falling apart and you want to fix it – or a block of flats requiring repairs.
“At the big end of town, I can do rezoning, and technically I can do strategic planning as well, for example a subdivision of 20 dwellings on a block of land.
“If you’re converting a block of land into three dwellings or some villas, that’s also me.’’
If you’d like to find more about what George Greiss the newest planner in town can do, visit his website, https://www.greissplanning.com.au