Page 1795 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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To this end, the bill identifies that rules will be made public, to outline how the design review panel will be constituted and the conduct of meetings and processes and procedures. This includes a term of reference that outlines who will preside over the design review panel sessions, how questions are resolved and how conflicts of interest are dealt with. Additionally, the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate has developed a set of design principles, in partnership with the NCA. The design principles have been prepared to allow for each development proposal to be consistently addressed by the design review panel.
An additional measure outlined in this bill to maintain transparency and accountability of the panel’s advice is that a summarised version of the advice will be made publicly available at the notification stage of a development application. This step will ensure that the sensitivities related to commercial-in-confidence and the like can be appropriately managed at the predevelopment application stage, while also providing the community with exposure to the panel’s advice at a stage where everyone is invited to comment on a development proposal.
The advice from state governments around Australia has cautioned that industry may view the design review panel process as additional red tape in the first year or two of establishment and before the true benefits of the process are truly realised and acknowledged. In this regard, it is important to note that the development of this bill does not make the design review panel an additional approval process to those already established. It is therefore important at this time that the design review panel remains advisory in nature.
To summarise, design review panels across the country provide many benefits for industry, government, design teams and, most importantly, the community. These benefits include access to design review as a free service and the reduction in risk, time and potential costs by identifying planning and design issues early.
There are also many benefits for the local design community, including lifting Canberra’s design and development industry to promote a higher standard of design. It also provides an opportunity to gain early support for innovative design intentions by design teams. The community will also benefit from the introduction of the design review through an improved development outcome that will better contribute to our city setting and environments.
We want our buildings and places to be resilient for the people to enjoy them and we want the design of our buildings and places to continue to be an attractor for Canberra, to be a showcase for good design. This bill will create the right setting for the government and industry to collaborate and to achieve better design outcomes across the ACT. I commend the bill to the Assembly
Debate (on motion by Mr Parton) adjourned to the next sitting.
Planning and Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
Mr Gentleman, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
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