This presentation was shown at a briefing to update Local Government on the Planning Bill 2013, on 29 October 2013.

1. Update on the Planning Bill 2013
Local Government briefing 29 October 2013

2. Trish Oakley
Executive Director
Community and Stakeholder Engagement
NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure

3. The Hon. Brad Hazzard MP
NSW Minister for Planning and Infrastructure
Minister assisting the Premier on Infrastructure NSW

4. Sam Haddad
Director-General
Department of Planning and Infrastructure

5. Marcus Ray
Executive Director
Planning Reform and General Counsel
NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure

6. The New Planning System Review and Transformative changes

8. What we’ve heard
ESD
What we learned
through consultation
Powerful public
Code narrative
assessments
Zones
Appeals
Customer response
Heritage
systems
SCC
Concerns about Sustainable Development
replacing ESD as an object of the Act
Consultation on code assessable DAs and
shift to 80% complying and code assessable
Concerns regarding E3 & E4 zones
changing to rural and residential zones
Perceived loss of judicial review rights.
Suggestions that community consultation
initiatives should be subject to appeal.
Concern that heritage and good design
protections are reduced
The role of Strategic Compatibility Certificates
and community input

9. What we’ve heard
Concurrences
What we learned
through consultation
Powerful public
Private certification
narrative
ICAC
Resourcing
Customer response
Strategic planning
systems
Infrastructure
contributions
Support for the one stop shop
General support for reforms in building
regulation and certification
Discretionary decision-making
Council concerns regarding
resourcing the changes
General support for upfront engagement
Including VPA and three year timeframes

10. What has changed in the Planning Bill?

11. Code assessment
•
80 per cent target for streamlined assessment removed
• Limited to growth areas & precincts serviced by good infrastructure and transport
• No code assessment in low density areas or heritage conservation areas
• Neighbourhood Impact Statement mandatory
• Areas for code assessable development may be nominated by councils
• Councils and communities play a role in deciding where codes apply through
subregional planning boards, where councils will have a majority

12. Heritage
• More prominence for heritage and Aboriginal heritage
• New environment and heritage planning policy
• Development on all State heritage and Aboriginal heritage must be merit assessed
with full consultation
• DG of Planning must follow Heritage Council advice in one stop shop unless:
 There is an unreasonable delay in determining the matter
 Cannot resolve conflict with another agency

13. Environment
• All current environmental protections to be preserved
• No code assessment for projects needing EIS or subject to State, Aboriginal,
heritage or threatened species provisions
• Biodiversity rules strengthened
• Conservation of biodiversity now an object of the Bill
• Existing environment SEPPs transitioned

14. Consultation
• Minister must consult with the community before major amendments to
strategic plans
• Minister must publish reasons why the plan is being made and how he
considered submissions

15. Strategic Compatibility Certificates
• Mandatory 28 days consultation with councils and community
• DAs must be lodged within 12 months and lapse if work not started within
two years
• Regional Planning Panels will determine applications for SCCs if council or
25 people object

16. Judicial Reviews and Appeals
• No restrictions on bringing judicial review proceedings (must be brought
within three months)
• Ability to seek a judicial review of strategic plan making

17. Infrastructure contributions
• Timeframe for spending contributions extended from three to five years
• Deferred payment at the point of sale – statutory charge on land
• Negotiating with councils and industry to set level of contributions
• Use of VPAs can be extended

18. Key features retained
• Focus on economic growth and improving productivity
• Triple bottom line approach to consider social, environmental and economic
impacts of development
• Whole of government strategic planning
• Local plans to contain all development controls
• One stop shop to eliminate duplication and unnecessary delays
• Community participation requirements enshrined in legislation
• Regional and local infrastructure contributions to be collected in greenfield and
infill areas
• Existing appeal rights continued

19. Transition and Implementation
• Partnership with local government puts it at front and centre of new system
• Local government to be consulted on new Memorandum of Understanding
between the sector and the department
• Ministerial taskforce involving local government to be set up
• Working closely with councils to implement reforms and develop governance
arrangements
• Comprehensive transition program will ensure no interruption to existing processes
• All existing development consents carried over to new legislation
• Councils have until 2016 to prepare Community Participation Plans
• Key protections such as koala habitats incorporated in new local plans
• Local environmental plans and development control plans will form part of the new
local plans

20. Jill Reich
Deputy Director-General
People, Culture and Business
NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure

21. White paper engagement - new approaches
•
Submissions – 4926 made through website, email, mail and online
feedback
•
Community and Practitioner Discussion Sessions – 40 sessions in 18
locations across NSW, 825 attended community sessions, 1335
attended practitioner sessions
•
Independent Stakeholder Groups – five groups attended by 250
people
•
Deliberative panels – two panels, 38 randomly selected
participants
•
Community Telephone Survey – representative survey of 2,700
randomly selected people across NSW.
What we learned
What we learned
Community will engage in strategic planning
Community will engage in strategic planning
Broaden reach
Broaden reach
embed web 2.0 engagement techniques
embed web 2.0 engagement techniques
segment the community
segment the community
Targeted approach
Targeted approach

22. Community Participation in the New Planning System
Duty of planning authority to act consistently with Charter
Early community involvement at all stages
NSW Planning
Policy
Websites
Social media
Regional
Subregional Delivery
Growth Plan
Plan
Local
Plan
Highest participation
Displays in
3D modelling
council buildings
YouTube
Community
meetings
Industry forum
Focus groups
Development
Assessment
Local
newspapers
Deliberative
workshops

23. Community Participation Charter
• Charter will for the first time allow every person in the community to be part of an
upfront planning process.
• More scope for councils to tailor statewide codes to reflect local conditions.
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Transparency
Transparency
Proportionate
Proportionate
Right to be informed
Right to be informed
Early involvement
Early involvement
Accessibility
Accessibility
Partnership
Partnership
Inclusiveness
Inclusiveness

24. Community Participation in the Existing
Planning System

25. Community Participation in the New Planning System
(Code Assessment)

26. Code assessment
• All cumulative impacts considered together through Neighbourhood Impact
Statements
• Extensive community consultation in preparing codes
• Community forums and workshops using 3D modelling of buildings
Complying development
• Increased notification period for residential complying development applications mandatory 14 days prior to approval and mandatory 7 days before construction

27. Partnering with local government to deliver the new system
• PlanEd
• Culture Change
• Planning Advisory service
• E-Planning

28. PlanED education and training initiative
• New initiative to provide education, training and tools for the new system
• Two main objectives:
• System transition –training modules to help transition to the new planning
system
• Capability development - framework for the planning industry, supported by
core capability training modules

29. Culture: Who we want to be
•
•
•
Recognise that the planning process will always need to balance interests
Some shared values are evident
– Accountable
– Streamlined, simplified, less bureaucratic
– ‘More strategic’
– Transparent
– Evidence-based
– Focus on what matters, not process for process’ sake
Achieving culture change means working out what these mean in practice

30. Culture change – our approach
•
Culture is shared across the system
– Inherent in everything the sector does
– Changing it is everyone’s business
•
Action-focussed, not abstract:
– Start by doing things differently and consciously learning from experience

31. Culture change – our approach
•
Collaborate to build on what works
•
Modelling the culture we want to see in everything we do
•
Informed by rich data and continuous monitoring
– On-going connection with the broader community to give meaning to
accountability
– Enabled by technology

32. The Culture Change Process
•
•
•
Broad Forum
– Ensure appropriate consultation and input at regular intervals
– Build support for change across the sector
Small working group
– To design culture change actions and progress quickly and efficiently
Resourced by the Department
– Secretariat
– Reference Group
– Data and monitoring

33. The Culture Change Process
•
•
•
Currently:
– Developing baseline data-gathering and monitoring approach
– Planning major kick-off event, to occur before Christmas
– Commencing consultation with key stakeholders on design of forum and
process and on building participation in the kick-off event
Working Group to commence operation after kick-off event
First meeting of Forum to be held early 2014

34. Planning Advisory Service
• New central resource to support community, council staff, councillors, developers,
certifiers and planning consultants through:
• Tailored tools
• Information updates
• Expert technical advice
• Mentoring
• Helpline to be jointly staffed by departmental and seconded council staff

35. ePlanning

36. Portal Landing Page

37. Portal : Multiple Sources of Data – One view
“ONE STOP SHOP” VIEW OF PLANNING INFORMATION

38. Portal : My Property
ALL PLANNING INFORMATION PRESENTED TO USER IN THE ONE PLACE

39. ePlanning - Engagement
ePlanning Sponsors and Champions
Project
A community of individuals to assist with
the rollout and promotion of ePlanning
in NSW.
ENGAGED COMMUNITIES, MEANINGFUL SUBMISSIONS, PLAN PROGRESS REPORTING

40. ePlanning Delivery 2013-14
DP&I
Mobile
 A DP&I website for
mobile devices.
 Link to community
information
Application Tracking
DP&I Mobile App
UAP 3D Modelling
Interactive House
Electronic Housing Code
FROM MOBILE ACCESS PLANNING INFORMATION – COMMUNITY “VALUE ADD”

41. Question and Answer Session

42. Where can I find out more:
www.planning.nsw.gov.au/planningforourfuture
Twitter: @NSWplanning
#newplanningsystem
Facebook: NSWplanning
Phone: 1800 139 181
Email: newplanningsystem@planning.nsw.gov.au

43. Update on the Planning Bill 2013
Local Government briefing 29 October 2013