How complicated can a planning framework be?

On 20 August, Friends of Hawker Village Incorporated held its Annual General Meeting and elected a new committee.  The committee members for this year are shown on the About Us page.  The highlight of the AGM was a dissertation by a Canberra planner on the planning framework.  This comprises a hierarchy of commercial centres – Civic Centre, group centres (such as Hawker) and local centres (such as Weetangera); the division of responsibility between the National Capital Plan and the Territory Plan – reflected in the division between National Land and Territory Land, as well as designated land and leasehold land.  The other important distinction is within the Territory Plan.  Each suburb has a Precinct Map and special provisions that apply to individual blocks are included in the Precinct Code.  Any provision in a Precinct Code takes priority over a similar provision in the relevant Development Code, eg. building height on a specific Hawker block might be higher in the Precinct Code than that specified in the Commercial Zones Development Code which would otherwise apply.  Likewise, provisions in a Development Code take precedence over any similar provision in the General Code.  A master plan helps to clarify how the different rules and criteria apply.

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