Final Report PlanFirst Review Taskforce - Department of Planning

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The Taskforce’s comments are generally consistent with the submissions received from stakeholders in response to the public exhibition of the White Paper. Local government, in particular, did not consider it to be the domain of a local plan to guide decision-making across all of a council’s daily activities and responsibilities. Therefore, having regard to the above, the Taskforce considers that the use of the term ‘local plan’ is a misnomer and does not accurately reflect the legitimate and core function of an instrument intended to guide environmental planning at a local level. The term ‘local plan’ should be replaced by ‘integrated plan’ as it more accurately reflects the function of a local environmental planning instrument – to integrate with a broad range of council plans and strategies and also to integrate with State government planning objectives at a State and regional level. Integrated Plans The Taskforce considers that integrated plans should be prepared having regard to the following principles: • An integrated plan should have a known and certain position in the hierarchy of planning documents that are produced by government, such as State planning policies, regional strategies and REPs. • It should be consistent with and give effect to State planning policies, REPs and regional strategies. • It is a statutory planning and land use control document that provides a single source of all land use controls applying to a particular parcel of land. • It should be consistent with, display clear links to, and where relevant give effect to other council management, strategic and operational plans. • It should provide a consistent (standard) set of definitions and provisions that are common to all local government areas to provide a level of certainty to the community. An integrated plan should have components that link to a council’s broader strategic objectives for an LGA and also to the regional and State planning objectives for that area. The Taskforce considers that to improve transparency and public participation in the planning process, a minimum level of consistency should be provided across all LGAs and it should be provided in a single location. Therefore, when a local council undertakes the preparation of its integrated plan, it should be in accordance with a regulated template and should be specified to contain: Content that is fixed by the State and mandatory for every integrated plan including: • The title of the plan. • State and regional planning objectives/provisions. • Standardised definitions. • Model provisions (a contemporary version). • An appropriate core set of exempt and complying provisions. • Monitoring and review provisions (to be reviewed once in every council term). • Standardised zones - a standard set of zones to be developed (following consultation with local government) and implemented in those LGAs that have not moved towards locality statements. PRINT VERSION 1 September 2003 20
Content that is flexible and tailored for the particular LGA including: • LEP maps and provisions (development standards, etc). • Locality statements or placed based provisions. • DCP and other specific planning policy provisions such as notification requirements. • Supporting information such as DA lodgement notes/advice. • Clear links to other council plans, including its strategic plan, management plan and various operational plans (capital works, social plan, etc). • Indicators to measure the performance of the plan. The proposed introduction of standard zones is supported by the Taskforce, subject to consultation with local government. The system of zoning is considered to provide greater clarity to the community and a transparency of process that is not necessarily apparent in place based controls. The pursuit of placed based approaches to land use planning should occur only in an environment where increased certainty can be provided to the community. The Taskforce considers that the system of zoning, supported by placed based locality statements, will provide the greatest certainty for users of the planning system. In this regard, DIPNR should guide this ongoing debate through the preparation of best practice guidelines for placed based planning in integrated plans. In addition to the above, the Taskforce recommends that it should be mandatory for councils to consolidate their planning instruments and policies into one integrated plan for every LGA. The ongoing development of e-plan technology by DIPNR will allow for greater ease of preparation of integrated plans. Delivery of these consolidated plans should occur in a coordinated manner and DIPNR should tailor a suitably staged timetable for this to occur, with metropolitan, coastal and amalgamated councils to be targeted as a priority. Integrated Plan Template To further assist in clarifying the role and content of an integrated plan, the Taskforce has developed a standard template which could be used during the preparation of integrated plans. The template requires further refinement by DIPNR and final approval by the Parliamentary Counsel's Office prior to its inclusion in the EP&A Regulation 2000. However, once the final format is approved, it would become a mandatory template for use by local government within a specified period. A copy of the integrated plan standard template is at Appendix 3. The integrated plan would contain statutory and non-statutory components. The statutory component of the integrated plan that is approved by the Minister is known as the LEP and the existing provisions of the EP&A Act apply to that component. Within the LEP component is content that is fixed by the State and mandatory for every LEP including all the provisions of applicable SEPPs and REPs and natural resource planning provisions that have been incorporated into those instruments. Standardised zones, standard definitions, model provisions, core exempt and complying provisions would also be included in the LEP as mandatory elements. They should be included in the standard template following consultation with local government and further development by DIPNR. These matters are addressed in greater detail in later parts of this report. It should be noted that the regulation of standard templates would not prevent the locally appropriate adoption of planning and development controls. Choice and flexibility at a local level 21 PRINT VERSION 1 September 2003
Page 1 and 2: Planning System PRINT VERSION 1 Sep
Page 3 and 4: 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Terms of Refer
Page 5 and 6: 1.4 Process The Taskforce met on ei
Page 7 and 8: Summary of Taskforce Recommendation
Page 9 and 10: DIPNR review the retention (or othe
Page 11 and 12: The main outputs of PlanFirst were
Page 13 and 14: Regional Strategies The preparation
Page 15 and 16: To avoid any potential confusion or
Page 17 and 18: Regional boundaries should be revie
Page 19: 5.0 LOCAL PLANNING 5.1 Issues Exami
Page 23 and 24: The Taskforce was of the view that
Page 25 and 26: State agencies. The Taskforce consi
Page 27 and 28: vii. Standardised zones (a standard
Page 29 and 30: 6.0 THE STRATEGIC PLANNING FEE 6.1
Page 31 and 32: Main funding for State and regional
Page 33 and 34: 7.0 NEXT STEPS - IMPLEMENTATION 7.1
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Page 37 and 38: about the value of masterplans. The
Page 39 and 40: The Hon Craig Knowles MP Minister f
Page 41 and 42: The Taskforce has requested that I
Page 43 and 44: should be explored once the review
Page 45 and 46: Integrated Plan Content PART I - St
Page 47 and 48: PART IV - Development Guidelines
Page 49: National Development Assessment For

Final Report PlanFirst Review Taskforce - Department of Planning

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