Penrith City Council (Council) is committed to improving the liveability outcomes of urban development within the Penrith Local Government Area (LGA) to address the urban heat island (UHI) effect and a changing climate. Planning can play an important role in the mitigation and reduction of the UHI effect, particularly for new developments. However, the NSW planning system currently limits Councils’ ability to enable improved outcomes on certain types of development undertaken using state managed legislation and policies (such as Complying Development). In many cases, councils are only able to encourage and recommend good practice. The State Government plays a significant role in developing policy and legislation that mandates better liveability outcomes within developments.

JOC Consulting was engaged to prepare an Issues Paper for Penrith City Council, highlighting key areas of concern, and identifying potential actions to address urban heat in new development. In summary, the actions advocated for the NSW State Government to undertake a holistic review of the planning system including legislation, planning policies and other environmental instruments to ensure they are addressing urban heat across NSW. The preparation of this issues paper included two phases of community engagement through a variety of formats, including:

OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORTIVE	WIDE REACH	HIGHLY ATTENDED
On average, 87% of respondents supported the proposed actions	Feedback was received from Property developers, Architects, Planners, Engineers, Policy Officers, Arborists, Asset Managers, and Sustainability Officers	75 Webinar Attendees60 Surveys Completed5 Stakeholder Interviews

In preparing the Issues Paper, JOC Consulting was also required to undertake significant background research onto best practice, prescriptive legislation, and propose changes to NSW Government managed legislation, policies and guidelines. 

Check out Penrith’s other urban heat initiatives here:

https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/waste-environment/cooling-the-city