Page 1816 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 May 2013
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In the early stages of planning for a future urban area, the zoning is typically shown indicatively. As planning for the area progresses, the zones are refined. The Planning and Development Act enables the territory plan to be amended to reflect any zoning changes as a technical amendment with limited community consultation. Limited consultation takes the form of a notice published in a daily newspaper. This process means the plan can be updated in relation to future urban areas efficiently and effectively whilst still retaining the opportunity for community comment.
The bill makes it clear that this technical amendment process also includes the capacity to introduce or amend codes that apply to the future urban areas. There will be safeguards—only zones already established in the territory plan can be used and the codes that can be introduced and any amendments to codes must still be consistent with the objectives of the relevant zone.
The bill makes it clear that rezoning in a future urban area can encompass the identification of a new zone and introduce a code or codes that will apply to that zone, ordinarily in the form of a concept plan. The benefit of this is that it allows the community to have a full picture of the evolving planning for the area, whilst maintaining sufficient flexibility to respond to changing circumstances.
For example, under the amendments proposed by this bill, a concept plan for a new suburb in the Molonglo valley could be introduced in the early planning stages, while the land is still defined as a future urban area. The concept plan may, for example, introduce minimum residential densities and building heights along major roads, and provide guidance for the design of particular streets and open space, but only if they are consistent with the territory plan and the Molonglo valley structure plan.
The concept plan would then inform the preparation and assessment of estate development plans for the suburb. Eventually, provisions relevant to the future development of blocks in the estate, such as minimum building heights, will be transferred to the relevant precinct code. When the last estate development plan for the suburb is approved and the relevant provisions migrated to a precinct code, the concept plan will be removed from the territory plan.
The bill also provides that a concept plan for a future urban area can be modified through the technical amendment process to reflect evolving planning outcomes. Again the changes must be fully consistent with the territory plan and the structure plan.
What constitutes an estate development plan, or EDP, is presently set out in section 94 of the act. There can be two types of EDPs—those for a future urban area and those for an existing area, for example, the Hume industrial area. EDPs for future urban areas can deal with three things: the zones that will apply, the ongoing provisions that will apply, and identifying block boundaries—whereas an EDP for an existing area only deals with ongoing provisions and identifying block boundaries.
This bill clarifies the situation with respect to varying the territory plan for the two types of estate development plans. Under the act, section 96, once an EDP for a future
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