EDO welcomes the opportunity to comment on the ACT’s proposed Planning Bill 2022. The Bill, which is intended to replace the Planning and Development Act 2007 (ACT), now in force for 15 years, is the centrepiece for how development will be planned, decided and regulated in the ACT in the future.
Development impacts the environment in a number of ways including impacts on our climate, biodiversity, and Aboriginal cultural heritage. It is important that the Bill establishes a planning system that provides for an appropriate balance between the need to achieve sustainable development with the need to protect and preserve our natural environment for future generations.
In these submissions, we make 35 recommendations which, if accepted by the ACT Government, will better protect the ACT’s environment from harm caused by development, and better protect the rights of people in the ACT to participate in the planning system and to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
