About

The Stage 1 - Discussion Draft of the Community Engagement Charter, a part of SA’s planning system reform, is now ready for comment.

Background

The Community Engagement Charter is an integral part of the new Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (the Act) and it seeks, for the first time in South Australia, to put engagement at the forefront of the planning system. It will establish outcome-based, measurable requirements for engaging community members on proposed changes to planning policy and strategy. The Charter will also allow engagement to be tailored to suit the needs of the community.

This Discussion Draft of the Charter consolidates and refines the input obtained through the Planning Together Panel process, which has also been influenced and guided by the “Practitioner Group” and the more widely represented “Larger Stakeholder Group”. Feedback is now sought to assist the Commission in refining the Charter by building on the work of the Panel. This includes exploring in greater detail implementation measures that will assist authorities in making decisions about how to engage, the community’s role in the engagement process, and how to evaluate the success (or otherwise) of the engagement process.

Engagement so Far

We have taken a deliberative approach in shaping this discussion draft of the Community Engagement Charter, which has included a range of people coming together to develop principles, outcomes and possible ways to measure the success of engagement activities. Three groups were formally convened to assist in this work:

• Planning Together Panel - a randomly selected, statistically representative group of 50 community members who were tasked with developing the components of the Charter in collaboration with representatives from the planning sector and other groups with an interest in planning.
• Practitioner Group - a group of senior professionals (encompassing local and state government, peak bodies and consultants) tasked with providing industry perspective and context for the Panel and ensuring the Charter is relevant and practical for its intended purpose. This group met prior to the first Panel session and their advice was considered by the Panel in its deliberations.
• Broader Stakeholder Group - includes planning practitioners, and groups and individuals with an interest in the planning system (around 70 people), who contributed knowledge and experience of the planning system as part of the Panel discussions.

This deliberative process included the Planning Together Panel meeting over four full days (1 and 2 July and 29 and 30 July 2017).

The Panel was supported by the Broader Stakeholder Group, State Planning Commission Members and the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure in learning about the new planning system.

Input was also sought from the broader community via a previous YourSAy engagement and through the SA Planning Portal. Feedback received through this process was considered in day 3 and 4 of the Panel’s deliberations.

Get involved

We want you to join the conversation to help to further refine this Charter as part of SA’s planning system reform.

Download the Discussion Draft (PDF 1.9MB)

The Planning Together Panel Report – output from engagement process to date

You can be involved on this next stage of discussion until Monday 9 October 2017:

• Complete the online survey
• Or lodge a submission through (SA Planning Portal): saplanningportal.sa.gov.au/our_current_system/engagement_and_consultation
• Send in a submission via email DPTI.PlanningEngagement@sa.gov.au or post to GPO Box 1815 ADELAIDE SA 5001

Feedback on this discussion draft will assist in evolving the Charter. The next phase will include a guide about how the Charter should be applied and how to evaluate success. The Commission will then run a second engagement process in accordance with statutory requirements of the Act later in the year. The Commission will then finalise the Charter ready for consideration by the Minister for Planning. This process will complete the drafting of the first edition Charter. The Charter will also be supported by an engagement toolkit which will be developed by the end of this year.

We recognise that this Charter is the first of its kind, and will therefore need to evolve over time. In its first year, it will be primarily applied to the development of new planning tools, including State Planning Policies, the Planning and Design Code, and Infrastructure Schemes.