The Combined Community Councils of the ACT (CCC), the peak body for the eight Community Councils in Canberra, has lodged a submission in response to the YourSay consultations on Draft District Strategies and the New Territory Plan. These are key elements of the ACT Planning System Review and Reform Project and it is significant all eight of Canberra’s Community Councils have provided a joint submisson. The submission states (in part):

• We have little confidence that the reformed planning system proposed and the “outcomes based approach” will actually “preserve the valued character of Canberra and its suburbs”.
• There is considerable further work to be done on the Draft District strategies to address the “disconnect between strategic and statutory planning”.
• The community and relevant stakeholders have been poorly engaged in the development of the reform process which has further undermined “the community’s confidence in the system and their ability to fully participate in planning and development”. The reforms to date appear to have increased the complexity and reduced the certainty of the planning system

Referencing ACT Planning System Reform and Review Overview (November 2020)

Each Community Council has also made their own submissions highlighting the concerns of residents in their districts, and we would strongly encourage you to review your districts’s Community Council submissions: