The NSW Government plans to introduce an independent planning body that will divide metropolitan Sydney into six districts.
As Planning Minister Rob Stokes announced, the soon-to-be-established Greater Sydney Commission will take control of planning decisions from Sydney’s 41 local councils.
The Greater Sydney Commission will include a commissioner for each of the six districts, nominated by their councils, three government heads, from the Departments of Planning and Environment, Transport for NSW and NSW Treasury, an environment commissioner, an economic commissioner, a social commissioner and a chairperson.
The new commission will also assume decision-making power on re-zoning proposals from the minister. In addition, it will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Government’s 20-year Plan for Growing Sydney, which was introduced in December 2014.
The commission is expected to streamline decision-making and create greater consistency among local council areas. “For too long Sydney’s urban planning has operated in silos of councils and government departments, without effective joined-up coordination for the infrastructure our city and suburbs need,” said Planning Minister Rob Stokes.
The introduction of the Greater Sydney Commission follows the NSW Government’s state-wide plan to amalgamate local councils, which drew strong opposition from councils both large and small.
The NSW president of the Local Government Association Keith Rhoades, who opposed the council mergers, welcomed the new commission.
“We’ve been saying fix the planning laws first, see how it goes before we go rip tear bust into amalgamating councils and finding out later that the issue was the diversity in the planning laws that we currently have,” he told the ABC.
Legislation to establish the commission is yet to be tabled in the NSW parliament, however, the government expects the commission will begin operation by late 2015.
