In a media release in February 2020, Rob Stokes, NSW Minister for Planning + Public Spaces announced he would work with the recently appointed NSW Government Chief Architect Abbie Galvin to provide integrated design guidelines for urban development. The new Design + Place SEPP would be less prescriptive and provide guidelines to enable design excellence in new development.
The new SEPP will review and bring together the Apartment Design Guide (ADG), NSW Government Architect’s Better Placed, BASIX and SEPP 65 (Design Quality of Residential Flat Development) into a single document.
At the UDIA February 2020 Luncheon (attended by CM+), Minister Stokes outlined the aims of the review to be:
- Integrated
- Simple and Clear
- Economically responsible and
- Durable.
In June, CM+ attended a Webinar discussion by DPIE presented by both Minister Stokes and the Government Architect to discuss what good design meant to them and discuss what they hope to achieve in developing this new SEPP. Currently being developed, it will go on public exhibition for comment by the end of 2020.
The SEPP aims to provide principles and characteristics in lieu of controls to be developed into a policy that ‘…can enable the good design of sustainable, regenerative environments’ (Abbie Galvin).
It will streamline the development planning process and guide development from master planning to built environment implementation.
The SEPP aims to provide a balance between certainty and flexibility, speed up the approvals process and encourage design excellence across new development of both the private and public domain.
The next step will be a call from the Government to form industry interest groups to provide input into development of the SEPP.
In conclusion, Minister Stokes said …’there’s a lot of work to do, but the ultimate aim is to ‘make people’s lives better’.
CM+ Associate and Bid Manager Elizabeth Cranfield is responsible for bid management and consultant relationships.