Community consultation has wrapped up on some of the biggest ever changes to the ACT Planning System, with significant involvement from the Canberra community.
Minister for Planning and Land Management Mick Gentleman has thanked Canberrans for engaging with and having their say on the draft district strategies and draft new Territory Plan.
"Our community is highly engaged in planning because it affects how we live, work and spend our time. Throughout this consultation we have seen people providing their feedback at every opportunity they could" Minister Gentleman said.
"This was an extensive engagement program over more than 17 weeks where representatives visited every district of Canberra to provide information and gather as much feedback as we could, and I am very pleased with the involvement we have seen from our community.
"The consultation process included 36 pop-ups across all districts, 9 community workshops, 4 days of listening spaces, presentations to community councils, and an online Q&A session. This is in addition to the YourSay page which had over 3,300 pieces of feedback for our planners to now consider while they finalise the documents. The page also had over 80,000 downloads of the materials and 30,000 visits to the site.
Some of the matters that we have heard through this time include:
- Interest in the planning for the possible change areas
- Protection of environment as a key consideration in planning
- Importance of having shops, parks and services close to where people live
- Providing 'missing middle' and housing diversity and housing affordability
An initial 'listening report' will be provided on the YourSay page that notes the feedback received.
The ACT Government will review the feedback and provide a consultation report that summarises the feedback and proposed government responses to those matters.
"I appreciate the time people have taken to participate in this work and provide such valuable feedback as part of the generational transformation of our planning system.
