Community and collaboration were in the winners’ spotlight at both the NSW and Queensland planning awards in recent weeks. Following is an edited highlight of the awards statements.
Among the winners in NSW were:
President’s award: Transport for NSW – Cities Revitalisation and Place Branch for project reVITALise – Rainbow Tunnels
The project was established to test creative activations and interventions in three underutilised inner west Sydney pedestrian tunnels to develop approaches for long-term positive change. The project sought to help improve perceptions of safety for women, girls and gender diverse people while demonstrating that we can have fun while we do our work.
Climate change & resilience: Cred Consulting with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment Planning Delivery Unit, Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council, Clarence Valley Council, Kyogle Council, Lismore City Council, Richmond Valley Council, And Tweed Shire Council for project Building Back Northern Rivers.
In the wake of devastating natural events, guidelines relevant to the various local councils were established. The document required a large geographic footprint and offered a simple yet highly effective guide to navigating the development application and planning process required by those impacted.
Strategic planning project: City of Coffs Harbour for project Coffs Harbour Public Realm Strategy
The Coffs Harbour Public Realm Strategy aims to create a connected network of public open space that is clean, green, and safe, with a goal that the Coffs Harbour community will have access to public open space within a 4 to 5 minute walk from their home. The City of Coffs Harbour is the first council in NSW to develop a comprehensive public realm strategy that aligns with the NSW government’s Greener Places Framework, with a focus on how the community can utilise
public spaces, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Community wellbeing and diversity: DunnHillam, in collaboration with SJB Planning NSW and the Cobargo Community Development Corporation for project, Rebuild Cobargo
During the 2019-20 bushfires, Cobargo was one of the communities that were hit the hardest, with lives lost and a significant number of historic buildings damaged or destroyed along the main street of the historic South Coast village.
The Rebuild Cobargo project engaged with the community to design a new town centre that caters to the needs of a contemporary community with a nod to the past and an eye on the future. The project provides a model to build back better in a way that prioritises increasing community resilience and future needs.
Notable PIA Queensland award winners include:
Overall winner: stakeholder engagement award and the climate change and resilience award winner: Ipswich City Council with Articulous for project, Ipswich Planning Scheme
The project comprehensively reviews the city’s natural hazard, risk and resilience policy settings set in 2020. The review created a groundbreaking program of natural hazard risk assessments that will guide the city’s settlement pattern and built form. The council will set new benchmarks for exemplary risk-based planning, particularly in embedding planning for natural hazards into planning instruments.
The Ipswich Planning Scheme 2024 also received the stakeholder engagement award.
Climate change and resilience: Ipswich City Council and Meridian Urban, and Water Technology for natural hazard risk assessments and place-based land use policy development program
Ipswich City Council embarked on a comprehensive review of its natural hazard, risk, and resilience policy settings in 2020.
This resulted in creating a “truly risk-responsive land use policy” and risk-based mapping that aimed to properly integrate these policy directions at the local area scale. The judging panel agreed it is arguably one of Queensland’s most comprehensive and detailed risk-based planning programs across natural hazards.
The judges noted that the multi hazard and integrated approach developed through the program was completely transferable to any local government area prone to natural hazards that wants to see natural hazard risk acting as a core determinant of settlement pattern rather than as a constraint to be mitigated.
This “exemplary planning policy program” recognised that our approaches of simply having natural hazards as an overlay within a planning scheme no longer adequately addressed the emerging challenges of insurability, financing, recurrent reconstruction obligation, and investor confidence in at-risk areas, the judges said.
Improving planning processes: Brisbane City Council for Brisbane Green Factor
The Brisbane Green Factor is a tool to measure and guide the assessment and impact of urban development on green outcomes and infrastructure in Brisbane. The panel agreed that
by reducing the complexity of designing, measuring, and testing urban green infrastructure, the tool provides a non-statutory supporting mechanism to assist development practitioners with green infrastructure implementation.
Wendy Chadwick encouragement award: Bundaberg Regional Council for Bundaberg region reducing urban glow and protection of sea turtles
The project is a hard-won victory, forged over six years, in response to concerns over proposed developments near sea turtle nesting areas, the judges said As part of the project, Bundaberg Regional Council amended its planning scheme to improve existing planning controls to protect sea turtles, ensuring development does not adversely impact nesting or turtle activity. The judges were impressed by the level of influence the project has had, noting that the overlay code developed for the project was subsequently implemented by the state as a model code and informed the draft of the Wide Bay Burnett regional plan.