Mick Gentleman reveals new ACT planning act as 'territory priority projects' replace call-in powers

The long-awaited exposure draft bill on the new planning act has been unveiled, with the territory's planning officials to place a greater emphasis on project outcomes. There will also be specific plans for each of Canberra's districts.

A new territory plan will be created as part of the act, and the planning and land authority will be renamed the Territory Planning Authority.

New powers would allow the ACT's planning minister to determine "territory priority projects", which would allow development application approvals to be expedited. This will replace the existing call in powers, which allow the minister to effectively bypass the development application process and prevent challenges to projects.

A policy overview paper of the new act said the power could be used for projects at the scale of light rail, the Canberra Hospital Expansion, schools and critical public housing. The government has used call-in powers on similar projects in recent years.

Certain criteria must be met in order for the planning minister to declare a "territory priority project". The proposed project must be critical infrastructure, provide a significant benefit to Canberrans, be time-critical and there must be significant public consultation.

If the planning minister has deemed a project to be a priority then the minister must inform the public of the intention and open it for public consultation.

The existing call in powers allow the planning minster to expedite the approval of an already-lodged development application.

The "territory priority project" power will replace this power. The main difference is that the planning minister would need to determine the priority project prior to a development application being lodged. The chief planner would also be the final authority on the approval, not the minister.

There would still be consultation on the project in the development application process.

"The power is proposed to provide the government and community with certainty that specified projects will not be subject to the delays, costs and uncertainties that are associated with third-party merit review and Supreme Court appeals," the policy overview document said.

"The proposed power recognises that important government projects undertaken to deliver public infrastructure and facilities, and limited private projects of public benefit, may justify a level of prioritisation in terms of time and a slight departure from the usual balance of competing considerations. However, compliance with the territory plan should be required in all cases."

It is not known how many developments the government will deem priority projects but Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said projects such as the Canberra Institute of Technology campus in Woden and the light rail could be considered as priority projects.

He said the projects would be considered on their benefits to the Canberra community and would likely be government projects.

"We look at the priority projects that will be coming forward into the future and judge each one in particular for the benefits of Canberra," Mr Gentleman said.

"[Call in powers] have been used more sparingly but now what we're seeing is that the Canberra community has asked for more notice, they are not so much concerned about a decision being made but want more notice on how they can respond to these decision processes."

Within the act, there will also be specific plans for eight identified districts in Canberra: Belconnen, Gungahlin, Molonglo Valley, North Canberra, South Canberra, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Woden Valley.

But the act would also allow for other districts to be developed in the future.

The specific district-level plans will be revealed later in the year.

"Through district-level planning we can identify those areas of value, and those areas where growth and change need to occur, and tailor provisions in the planning system to implement those the planning strategy at the district-scale and give effect to the object of the act," the policy review said.

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A requirement for pre-development application consultations on certain projects will be also removed, with the review saying the process does not add any value. The policy overview document said the issues raised in the pre-development application consultation often remained when the application was officially lodged.

"While pre-DA consultation is proposed to be removed, there will be significant improvements to the transparency of processes throughout the planning bill," the policy overview document said.

"These include application documents for territory plan amendments and DA processes being proactively published on the planning website, and improvements to strategic and spatial planning processes, through district strategies, to provide greater clarity about how areas may change and evolve in the future."

The pre-development application process will be replaced with consultation principles. The principles will be developed following the three-month consultation on the exposure draft bill.

The principles will be included in the act through a regulation determined by the planning minister.

ACT chief planner Ben Ponton said this was because the directorate believed the community was best placed to advise on what should be included in the principles.

"We're putting the call out to community and industry and professional associations to advise us what they think those principles ought to contain," Mr Ponton said.

The ACT planning system has been under review for more than two years. The review determined that a new planning act was necessary to improve the system.

Mr Ponton said last year that developers were given a "clear pathway" in the current planning system.

"As a result of a very rules-based system, people are just going through and ticking off each of the rules," Mr Ponton said in an estimates hearing.

The exposure draft bill will be opened for public comment for three months from March 16 to June 15, 2022.

The new planning bill is expected to be introduced into the Legislative Assembly later in the year.

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