Final Report PlanFirst Review Taskforce - Department of Planning

7.2 Electronic Delivery Demonstration Projects
One of the fundamental aspects of providing a simpler, integrated and more accessible planning
system is that all State, regional and local plans will be delivered electronically via the iPlan
website.
iPlan already exists as a whole of government State-wide internet tool delivering digital local
environmental plan maps (and respective legal instruments) and current SEPPs and REPs.
Electronic plan delivery involves process development to create electronically searchable State
planning policies and integrated plans, development of a technical architecture to help councils do
more consistent and standard plans, delivery of standard data sets so that councils are all
operating off the same, consistent data knowledge, templates for councils’ plans and public access
systems that will access the underlying databases of the new integrated plans.
This area offers significant opportunities for pilot and prototype work with individual councils over
the next two years.
The Taskforce fully supports a number of demonstration projects, related to the electronic delivery
of the integrated plan, being pursued as a matter of priority.
Consideration needs to be given to suitable local council candidates who could pilot small projects
that would directly contribute to the ultimate delivery of the integrated plan, while at the same time
test concepts and approaches. These councils should be representative of the different areas of
the State, be engaged in (or about to commence) a comprehensive review of their planning
instrument, require an updated plan because of recent (or likely) amalgamations and have varying
internal degrees of technological sophistication and staffing support.
Projects could be consistent with the phased development process required to deliver electronic
plans, such as:
• Complete definition of business, operational and technical requirements for electronic delivery -
working with a sample of councils to define business processes, workload, timings and
technical options.
• Develop a thesaurus (defined list) of planning controls - for use in State, regional and local
planning and their values (eg: what value should be given to the clause “high density
residential”) using a sample of local councils experience.
• Acquire pilot internet-based system to support electronic plan making - initially on a proof of
concept basis for different council types, then incrementally growing in capacity to cater for all
councils in NSW.
• Support for councils to develop new integrated plans - by selecting a range of councils and
taking them through the new planning process from beginning to end. The full funding plan
includes allocation of monies for planners to create/convert plans in the new manner and for the
provision of training and support to councils using the new system. Following the pilot, funds
could be allocated for implementation by 25% of councils each year beginning in 2004/05.
PRINT VERSION
1 September 2003
34