The Department of Planning and Environment is committed to creating great places to live, work and play for communities across New South Wales. This can only be achieved if the community is engaged in our planning functions at the earliest possible opportunity.
Our Community Participation Plan (CPP) is designed to make participation in planning clearer for the NSW community.
The CPP explains how and when you can have your say on plans, projects and the NSW planning frameworks that impact you and is a benchmark to improve engagement practices in the NSW planning system.
It also outlines our commitment to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and culturally and linguistically diverse groups.
The CPP incorporates feedback received from the community and other stakeholders during the public exhibition of the draft CPP in 2018.
If you want to have a say in the future planning of NSW read our Community Participation Plan.
Community engagement case studies
The series of case studies below demonstrates how the Department encourages community participation by facilitating early engagement activities and organising events to meet local and regional communities. We aim to understand how you feel and what you need in your area.
Jindabyne Masterplan 2036
In May 2019, the Department engaged with the Jindabyne community and surrounding towns through a variety of face-to-face and online means, including workshops, pop-up events and working groups. This engagement has allowed the Department to understand the unique values, character and story of Jindabyne and discuss the future of the town, its challenges and its opportunities.
The Rosehill Chand Raat Festival
In June 2019, we visited the Chand Raat Festival, which is the biggest celebration of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr in Australia. We spoke with over 500 locals in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English to hear from people of all ages and background about their ideas for a great neighbourhood.
Engaging with Aboriginal communities
The Department’s Regional Team together with the Department’s Aboriginal Community Land and Infrastructure Program (ACLIP) team actively consulted with the Local Aboriginal Land Councils in NSW about how Aboriginal community-owned land can best be planned, managed and developed.
During the engagement process, the land councils expressed a need for support for a strengthening of the economic self-determination of their communities. They also expressed the need for the strategic assessment of land held by land councils so they could identify priority sites for investigation of their economic opportunities.
As a result, the Department’s ACLIP team responded by coordinating a series of Introduction to the NSW Planning System workshops across NSW for all Local Aboriginal Land Councils.
With the knowledge gained from the workshops, the land councils have been empowered to engage with the NSW Planning system, and to achieve economic development outcomes through better land use planning and informed decision making.
The La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council get some outdoor training at the Introduction to the NSW Planning System workshop.
A virtual park at the Easter Show
In April 2019, we took an innovative approach and invited the community to visit our virtual park at the Easter Show to find out how they feel about outdoor playspaces.
Wearing virtual reality goggles, families and kids could experience what it’s like to use an inclusive playspace or walk through Yamble Reserve in Ryde, feeling as though they’re standing among the trees and play equipment in the park.