"If you're going nowhere, any path will get you there."
With this admonition, Newcastle Council's Local Strategic Planning team
began a recent community workshop on the draft "Newcastle Local Planning
Strategy" (NLPS), which will help set land use and development controls
across the Newcastle local government area for the next decade or so.
Once adopted, the strategy will guide any future review of the Newcastle
Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and the Newcastle Development Control Plan (DCP)
- which means that it's a pretty big deal, since very few council documents
have such a profound and far-reaching impact on cities and local communities as
these.
The current draft Local Planning Strategy process started in September
2012, with the staged release of a series of background and working papers on
topics such as housing, employment, heritage, recreation and hazards.
The working papers (which are still available) are full of useful
information, and each step in the process has provided an opportunity for
community participation.
For people in the community who want to be actively involved in helping to
shape their local communities, the NLPS process has been a refreshing exception
to the tick-a-box, tokenistic community consultation for which Newcastle
Council has become notorious over the past couple of council terms, and that
has been a key driver of so much conflict between the council and the
community.
The NLPS appears to be driven by council officers who value, understand and
care about community consultation.
Let’s hope it’s infectious.
The long process is now drawing to a close, with the final strategy scheduled
for adoption by the elected council in mid-2015.
The current community consultation on the final draft strategy that is now
on public exhibition is likely to be the last opportunity that members of the
local community will get to have their say on this strategy.
Newcastle residents will be particularly interested in the “Neighborhood
Visions” part of the document (in Appendix A), which sets out a Vision and
Objectives for each suburb in the Newcastle council area, and provides relevant
forecasts for future population and dwellings.
Much of the discussion at recent community workshops on the strategy was focused
on these Neighborhood Visions, and whether they accurately and comprehensively
reflected the issues and aspirations of the various suburbs and communities
that make up the Newcastle council area.
Public submissions to the draft Local Planning Strategy close on Monday, 27
April. Submissions can be sent via email (mail@ncc.nsw.gov.au)
or by post to The General Manager, City of Newcastle, PO Box 489, Newcastle
NSW, Attention Steve Masia.
The council has asked participants to please reference “Draft Local
Planning Strategy” in the title of any submissions.
You’ll find the documents and other information about the NLPS on the council’swebsite, or at your local library.
With planning issues and decisions at the forefront of local public
discussion, there’s never been a more important time to have your say about the
kind of future you want for your community.
