16 April 2013
The White Paper outlining the structure for a new planning system in NSW can lift the prosperity of NSW citizens if fully implemented, says the Urban Taskforce.
The raft of new initiatives in the White Paper have tackled the key problem areas in the current planning system and presented good reforms although the detail will ultimately determine the success of the package, says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. We agree with involving communities early in the planning process but we are concerned about how representative the community will be. It seems that the selection of who is the community is left to local councils and this could lead to anti-development groups dominating the formation of strategic plans.
To date the government seems to equate community with environmental groups but all members of the community need to be involved in determining the future form of their area. The production of Subregional Delivery Plans by Subregional Planning Boards needs industry input on the feasibility of development as well as input from broader communities.
The focus on cultural change is very positive as currently there seems to be a very anti-growth culture in NSW. Clearly our population is growing fast and the government and councils will need to communicate the best ways to handle this growth. Campaigns like the EcoDensity program in Vancouver will need to be encouraged.
The proposal to lift ˜code assessable approvals to 80% of all applications is very necessary if NSW is going to lift its housing supply. It is essential that this applies to apartment buildings that will be a growing proportion of new households. This will require agreed building forms to be determined at the early planning stage that are economically feasible.
The government needs to be careful in implementing a new levy on apartment buildings that this does not affect viability. If communities limit the height of apartments and the government then adds levies to contribute to infrastructure then the apartments may never be built.
The proposal for a one stop shop to co-ordinate the raft of government agencies sounds like a positive move as many development proposals get bounced around many agencies, all wanting funds for infrastructure.
The fact that the government has produced an exposure draft bill for the reforms demonstrates that the government is committed to the White Paper package and does not expect major changes.
Clearly there is still a lot of detail that will follow the legislation including the development of the planning policies and the preparation of the regional strategic plans.
Developer contributions have been simplified with both local and regional levies proposed. As long as the costs of these levies do not kill off projects the system seems to be a good improvement.
The proposal to move to form based planning controls will need further discussion as it is an enormous amount of work to develop envelopes for every site in the state and to anticipate the amalgamation of sites. Communities will want to understand just what heights may occur in their communities.
The retention of Strategic Complying Certificates until plans are complete at all levels is a positive stimulus for development in the short term. Despite some recent improvement in production NSW still lags other states in building production and short term encouragement is needed to kick start projects.
