New Ipswich 黑料大事 Scheme (Ipswich Plan 2024)
Ipswich City Council, Articulous, Meridian Urban and Water Technology
Land of the Traditional Owners: The Traditional Owners of the Ipswich region, known traditionally in the Yagara language as Tulmur, are the Clans that identify as being a part of the Yagara/Yugara Language Group (the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul People)
Developing a new planning scheme is a long and complicated process that requires a delicate balancing of technical matters with community, industry, political and other stakeholder views. The path to adoption and implementation is long, has its ups and downs and can often go unrecognised.
Ipswich City Council’s consultation program and work regarding natural hazards has significantly benefitted the development of their new planning scheme.
The decision to undertake an extensive, non-mandatory community education campaign prior to the statutory public notification period is an exemplar in stakeholder engagement. The approach and tools employed provided an authentic approach to support community empowerment in a way that can be replicated nationally.
The integration of natural hazards has also provided a new benchmark for a risk-based approach to natural hazards in land use planning in the plan-making process.
Council’s review of its natural hazard, risk and resilience policy settings resulted in the creation of a comprehensive program of natural hazard risk assessments which are now guiding the City’s settlement pattern and built form.
This work on natural hazards establishes that our current approach (of simply having natural hazards as an overlay considered during development assessment) no longer adequately addresses the emerging challenges of insurability, financing, recurrent reconstruction obligation and investor confidence in at-risk areas.
The framework developed in Ipswich elevates the issues of climate change and dynamic future scenarios of risk, into a strategic consideration to develop a resilient settlement pattern which enables a resilient economy to flourish and safeguards community wellbeing. It takes bravery to adopt this approach. This bravery has provided a pathway for other local governments to follow in fully integrating the consideration of natural hazards and climate resilience in land use planning.
The judges have no doubt that Council’s approach to developing the new planning scheme and the immense value of these two particular projects will hold the new planning scheme in good stead for many years to come.
Congratulations, Ipswich City Council, Articulous, Meridian Urban and Water Technology!