The State’s planning system is to be faster, easier to use and more transparent following a raft of reforms from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) aimed at improving the assessment of State significant projects.
Group Deputy Secretary of Planning and Assessment at DPIE, Marcus Ray said major projects were an important economic driver and the reason why NSW needed a predictable and fast planning system.
“The new Rapid Assessment Framework will slash end-to-end assessment times for major projects like hospitals, warehouses and schools by at least 21 days, by making the process easier for everyone involved,” Mr Ray said.
“To do that, we’re rolling out industry-specific requirements that have been pre-prepared by the Department for major project applications to speed up the process by being upfront about what we expect and giving us better quality applications to assess,” he said.
“We’re leveraging our digital systems to roll out these changes and improve transparency and the customer’s experience of the planning system.”
Mr Ray said the Framework provided clear, upfront guidance about DPIE’s expectations on what was needed for an applicant’s environmental assessment.
The Group Deputy Secretary said the Framework included new guidelines on cumulative and social impact assessment, to ensure communities were involved from the earliest stage of the process, and a robust technical assessment to provide better planning outcomes.
“We’re also updating the rules for the requirements for applications, so they automatically expire after two years,” he said.
“This is to make sure we get the best, most recent and relevant information to assess and for the community to have its say.”
Mr Ray said the new Framework was the most significant improvement to the major projects system in the last decade.
Further information on DPIE’s Rapid Assessment Framework can be accessed at this PS News link.
