2015-06-29 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                        29 JUNE 2015


Government Priority                                                              Comment

Supporting planning schemes that are streamlined, understandable and practical   Performance based planning has resulted in large cumbersome planning
to give greater certainty to the community and industry about development        schemes where you are trying to predict all manner of conceivable impact in
outcomes                                                                         order to write a provision to counter that possibility.
                                                                                 Technical or prescriptive assessment criteria are preferred for development
                                                                                 where applicants do the assessment or for straightforward code assessment.
                                                                                 Prescriptive assessment criteria also provide greater certainty to the community
                                                                                 on outcomes and are desirable in planning scheme drafting for key issues.
                                                                                 Performance based criteria is more useful for development which may not have
                                                                                 been anticipated on that site or for which there may be various impacts.
                                                                                 Writing in a positive language, generally avoiding negative language is supported
                                                                                 however for brevity sometimes a few words about what will not occur can
                                                                                 condense matters.
                                                                                 Planning Schemes should be documents that can be read and understood by the
                                                                                 community and not just by planners or lawyers. A plain English approach is
                                                                                 necessary rather than jargon.
                                                                                 Solutions must be quantifiable and qualitative outcomes must be clear and
                                                                                 definite enough to leave no scope for misinterpretation
                                                                                 Given schemes will most often be read on-line into the future there are means of
                                                                                 immediately cross-referencing any technical or defined phrase as well bringing
                                                                                 up illustrations to further explain a point or provide an example.

Continuing to require regular reviews of local government planning schemes and   The review of a scheme every 10 or even 8 years is supported however at 5 year
state planning instruments to ensure the planning framework remains              intervals the process is too resource intensive and even the community loses
contemporary and up-to-date                                                      interest. In order to ensure planning schemes are contemporary, the process for
                                                                                 amending planning schemes must be more expedient such as introducing the
                                                                                 ability to amend schemes without two state sign offs necessary.

Exploring opportunities to support innovative and technological solutions that   Various opportunities may be available to access relevant parts of the planning
improve efficiency and effectiveness in plan making and development              scheme online and to electronically prepare and lodge an application or do your
assessment                                                                       own electronic self-assessment. Having development applications accessible
                                                                                 online also reduces enquiry load. Currently individual Councils are choosing their
                                                                                 own systems to support this process.




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