Standardise the Standards – Final Recommendations Paper

The Parramatta River flows through the geographic heart of Sydney and one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. Making the river swimmable delivers on the sustainability and liveability goals in the Greater Sydney Commission’s District Plans and is core to achieving the vision for Sydney’s Central River City.

Step 4 of the Parramatta River Masterplan is focused on reviewing the strategic and statutory planning frameworks that contribute to delivering our vision for a world class river. Working closely with our partners, our review has resulted in the release of a recommendations paper, Strategic and Statutory Planning Review to Create Our Living River.

The paper sets out three broad areas for planning reform:

1. Simple updates to council’s Local Environment Plans (LEPs) and Development Control Plans (DCPs), to adopt over the next few years. These changes will ensure that development does more to reduce stormwater pollution and foster healthy ecosystems.
2. Developing, piloting and adopting two new frameworks for improving waterway health outcomes in new development:
   • A Blue Green Index Tool for assessing development applications
   • A Blue Green Grid for riparian mapping
3. Working with our project partners and stakeholders to strengthen and support waterway health considerations in all planning approval pathways. This will require broader reform beyond the remit of local government.

Standardise the Standards – Final Recommendations Paper
Download the full Final Recommendations Paper

Recommendations Paper Executive Summary
Download the Recommendations Paper Executive Summary

To get an overview of this planning reform work, please watch this short video.

Final Recommendations Paper Webinar Series

The consultancy team from Civille and Macquarie University held a series of short webinars in order to share the key recommendations in the recently released paper for Step 4: Strategic and Statutory Planning Review to Create Our Living River and get attendees thinking about how we move the recommendations into implementation.

Webinar 1: Improving local planning provisions for diffuse stormwater pollution and waterway health

This webinar provides council and agency staff with an overview of the drivers for policy reform to address the issues of diffuse stormwater pollution and waterway health in new development. It covers the recommendations contained within the recently released paper for Step 4: Strategic and Statutory Planning Review to Create Our Living River, focusing on the two key policy directions: the blue green index for WSUD and green infrastructure and the blue-green grid of waterway and riparian land. The webinar then goes into some detail on the actions specific to councils on updating their Local Environment Plans and Development Control Plans.

Webinar 2: A blue-green index to reduce diffuse stormwater pollution

This webinar introduces the proposed new blue-green index tool. We explain how we think this new tool can address the complex planning issues that exist in stormwater management in Sydney. We also look at the proposed features of this new tool and compare it to similar tools that have been adopted in Australia and elsewhere. We will then go into the steps required to pilot the tool and a discussion on the challenges.

Webinar 3: Blue-green grid for improved waterway health

This webinar introduces the concept of a blue-green grid for the Parramatta River catchment. It is suitable for council and agency staff interested in waterway and catchment management, strategic planning and biodiversity conservation. We discuss the reasons why we need the blue-green grid, how it could be implemented across the catchment, and the next steps required to develop the grid.

Learn more about Step 4 of the Parramatta River Masterplan – Standardise the Standards.