19 April 2022
Happy Easter to all and I hope that everyone managed to stop for a few days and enjoy the sunshine.
The big news that has occupied much of the Executives thoughts and discussions has been the dropping of the Design and Place SEPP by recently reappointed Planning Minister Roberts at the beginning of April.
Exhibition had recently closed on the draft with considerable effort put into submissions from the AILA NSW advocacy group (special thanks to Crosbie Lorimer, Lee Andrews and Tessa).
The draft SEPP included an updated Apartment Design Guidelines (ADG) and a new Urban Design Guidelines (UDG) that provided a framework for sustainable design, promotion of design excellence, climate responsive design and design that advanced the principles of working with Country.
A huge amount of consultation and work had been put into the development of the SEPP, ADG and UDG primarily by the NSW GA and DPE open space and public domain teams.
It is the Executive’s opinion that abandoning the SEPP in its entirety is a short sighted decision that panders only to the vested interests of the developer lobby groups. The ever increasing costs of the failure of government and industry to respond to our changing climate will continue to be a burden upon communities in the form of energy costs, physical and mental health, loss of biodiversity and the increasing frequency of natural disasters. Against all expert advice the NSW government has chosen to revert to business as usual in our built environment while the stark realities of climate change play out in the form of bushfires, floods, record heat and drought across our state.
A positive out of the exercise has been the collaborative relationship built with PIA and AIA in developing a coordinated response to the draft SEPP and to Minister Roberts decision. The executive will continue this collaboration as we continue to engage with government in promoting the principles of the Design and Place SEPP and we will be seeking to elevate the public discourse around these issues as we head towards the state election in March 2023.
As I write there are still a few places available for this week's Latitude Event: Empowering Practices to Use Inclusive Language presented by Tara Cull this Thursday keep an eye out for the Awards Reveal on May 5th with a record 91 Submissions!- Registration is now open And lastly the NSW Casual Catch Ups kick off this week with a focus on Parents In Landscape Architecture Network , with 2 guest speakers joining us for an informal chat -Join the Catch up here
NSW Executive Member
David Moir