In mid 2021, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (the Department) consulted with stakeholders to develop best practice procedures that if applied consistently throughout the planning proposal assessment process, would lead to faster approval times whilst ensuring good quality outcomes.

The consultation was facilitated by JOC Consulting and involved the Department and Councils participating in workshops, interviews and an online survey. The extensive and iterative consultation brought together more than 280 participants to deep dive on the issues previously raised by stakeholders while asking for new ideas and testing draft concepts for process improvements.

Participants were appreciative of the Department’s efforts in seeking to resolve matters concerning planning proposal complexity, timeframes, state agency engagement, case management, guidance and the planning portal.

Based on this combined feedback, JOC Consulting developed a range of initiatives and success metric recommendations that will help reduce rezoning decisions by 191 days (a 33% time saving).

“The engagement process from DPIE has been excellent and I feel confident that positive changes will occur soon”

– Survey participant