Environmental Assessment and Planning

The Environmental Assessment and Planning project is seeking to provide councils with tools and resources to assist in achieving improved environmental outcomes within the planning system.  Specifically the project seeks to promote the protection of biodiversity and the use of water sensitive urban design approaches throughout the planning cycle. The project is delivering these outcomes through a number of aspects:
 
WSUD Community of Practice
HCCREMS, with the support of a number of councils, has implemented a community of practice involving Strategic Planning & Land Use Planning staff.  The community of practice is involved in developing and reviewing regional guidance on WSUD planning and device management.

Electronic REF Template
The electronic Review of Environmental Effects (REF) template is being developed to assist councils in conducting REF assessments and giving councils greater confidence that the REF is addressing all the appropriate issues required by the miriad of federal and state legislation relevant to council operations.  The computerised REF template is expected to be completed late in 2010 and provided to councils to beta test before being rolled out accross the region for general use.

Enforceable and regionally consistent conditions of consent
HCCREMS has provided training to 55 officers from 9 of the regional councils on Writing Enforceable Conditions of Consent. This training provided officers with knowledge in skills in reviewing and drafting clear and legally enforceable conditions. As a result of the training sessions, staff from a number of councils have expressed an interest in working with HCCREMS to develop regionally consistent conditions relating to a number of specific environmental aspects including water quality and biodiversity. Workshops to develop these regional model conditions will commence in 2010.

Funding Environmental Compliance
The FOCUS on Sustainability program is working with councils to identify ways for councils to fund compliance related programs.  To this end, HCCREMS developed a scoping document which summarised many of the funding options available to councils  (such as levies, bonds, fees, and fines) and engaged Dr. Gerry Bates (UNSW) to provide a legal review of all the options available and include up-to-date references to both legislation and case law.  The Draft paper was explored with practitioners at a workshop to gain better understanding of the options already being utilised by councils in the region and many examples were incorporated into the final paper. The final paper is available here.