On 9 February 2012, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, the Hon Brad Hazzard, held a forum attended by more than 230 delegates representing key planning stakeholders from across NSW. The purpose of the forum was to provide participants with feedback on the progress of the review to date as well as an opportunity to workshop the Issues Paper which was released for public comment on 6 December 2011. The half-day forum was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, George Street, Sydney.
The review of the NSW planning system began in July 2011. Go to the Listening and Scoping Phase page for more information about the process involved in the review's first phase.
The forum opened with an address by the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Brad Hazzard. The Minister spoke about the importance of the Review and the key role that planning plays in the economic development of NSW. The Minister explained that a cabinet subcommittee on housing was looking to find ways of addressing the key barriers to housing supply. The Minister also announced that an expert panel together with a stakeholder reference group would be established to provide input into the next phase of the Planning System Review.
Mr Tim Moore, a co-chair of the Planning System Review then outlined the progress of the review and encouraged participants to be open in their thinking and not to be constrained by the content of the Issues Paper during their workshop discussions.
Forum workshops
Participants then broke into six workshops, where they had the opportunity to discuss the issues covered in a particular chapter of the Issues Paper:
- Key elements, structure and objectives of a new planning system
- Making plans
- Development proposals and objectives
- Development proposals and objectives (two sessions ran concurrently to accommodate interest in this topic)
- Appeals and reviews; enforcement and compliance
- Implementation of the new planning system.
Each workshop was facilitated by two stakeholder representatives and the same facilitators led both workshops on a particular topic. The facilitators’ role was to work with their groups (up to 50 people per workshop) to generate as much output as possible in relation to a particular topic. They were free to use whatever process they felt would be most effective for the size of their group and there was no limit applied to the scope of ideas, feedback and solutions generated in the workshop discussions.
Workshop format
The first round of workshops ran between 9.20am and 10.25am. After morning tea, the workshops ran again, between 10.40am and 11.45am. This format provided forum participants with the opportunity to discuss two different topics over the course of the morning.
Workshop reports
Written and video reports on each workshop topic are available on the following pages: