THE

VALUE OF
PLANNING
August 2017

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 THE VALUE OF PLANNING

Planning delivers quality places that grow wealth and jobs and strengthen urban
and regional communities. Planning enables economic growth to be achieved
alongside environmental goals and community aspirations.

Australia is growing faster than any other OECD nation with a population over 10 million. Our population
is expected to reach 40 million by 2050, and Sydney and Melbourne are both forecast to reach 8 million
before mid-century. A much higher proportion of older people will be represented in our community.
In an expanding knowledge economy, jobs are likely to be increasingly concentrated in our major citiesi.
Planners express visions for the future and work with the market to shape the structure and function of
our cities and regions.

The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) proudly promotes the value of planning to government, the
private sector and the community at large. We are working to make the profession more effective and to
be recognised as a trusted voice for planning.

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 THE VALUE OF PLANNING

THE ROLE OF PLANNING

Planning is the way decisions are made on the use of our land, resources and
investment in infrastructure to provide the best results over the long term.

Planning generates value by making great places. Planners understand the spatial relationships between
places, their communities and how they interrelate with each other and the economy into the future.
Strategic thinking and the integration of economic development, infrastructure and design are distinctive
characteristics of planning.
These capabilities are essential in a world in which cities compete as places to live and do business.
Planners are trained to see the whole picture, especially the role that people play in making long-term
choices on the way we use our resources and enjoy places.

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EVIDENCE-BASED STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR

SYDNEY’S CENTRES AND CORRIDORS
The way space is used and connected across Sydney makes a difference on how
productively we use our human capital and our ability to improve living conditions.
The planned future distribution of growth is based on a ‘networked centres and corridors’ model reinforced in
successive Metropolitan Plans for Sydney - and developed further through the ‘three cities’ structure outlined in the
Draft Greater Sydney Region Plan (2017).

CONCEPTUAL URBAN STRUCTURE FOR SYDNEY (NSW GOVERNMENT 2010)II

This structure is supported by evidence from the performance of alternative growth scenarios for Sydney (CIE
2010 & 2012). Spatial planners working with economists and engineers have designed plausible growth paths
and monetised the potential benefits and costs of future transport networks, housing stocks and social and
environmental outcomes.
Initial analysis revealed that a growth path locating at least 70% of new housing growth in existing urban areas
would offer an $5 billion net cost saving over locating 50% in greenfield areas (CIE 2010)iii. Furthermore, the
net benefits (around $1,800 for each new dwelling) of distributing growth among many accessible centres
outperformed scenarios that concentrated growth in inner areas or dispersed growth across the metropolis
(CIE 2012)iv.
Integrated metropolitan planning is required to realise the value of a well-structured city.
This translates into planning initiatives to:
• deliver growth precincts as part of an integrated design, land use control, infrastructure
prioritisation and governance regime;
• create and link spaces for employment growth;
• enable the more effective operation of freight and distribution networks;
• better connect population in Western Sydney with jobs in growing industry sectors;
• create incentives for the supply of a diversity of housing types in accessible places; and
• recognise and fund infrastructure to improve community wellbeing.
In Sydney, this has resulted in the strengthening of the Global Economic Corridor, an expanded radial transport
network, the growth of Parramatta (and other strategic centres) and integrated planning of the Growth Centres and
renewal precincts/corridors. Future progress is needed to strengthen transit cross connectivity, improve housing
affordability across all markets, invigorate job growth in Western Sydney centres and boost the liveability of areas
being transformed by growth.

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 THE VALUE OF PLANNING

PLANNING BUILDS ‘PUBLIC VALUE’ AND

EMPOWERS THE COMMUNITY
Good planning creates valuev for the public by:
• setting out what results should be achieved for a place in the future;
• strengthening legitimacy and authority behind the actions to achieve the stated results; and
• building capacity and enabling action by industry, the community and government to
channel growth effectively.
Planning enables communities to be heard – and to confer their authority in contested decisions around
development, infrastructure investment and the shape that growth may take.
The process of planning has a civic role to ensure transparency and fairness – so that even those who
disagree with a decision can still support the fair basis on which it was made.
Planning rules are designed to strengthen the validity of land use decisions in the eyes of the community
and other stakeholders including development proponents. Good planning achieves this at minimal cost
in comparison to the public value generated. A positive planning culture is demonstrated when planning
processes are used proactively to achieve a strategic outcome.
The legacy of good planning is a predictable basis for investment in housing, employment and other
beneficial uses which reflect community values for a place.

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PLANNING SYSTEM REFORM

PIA places great significance on how planning reform delivers the chain of decision-making
needed to:
• enable community expression on long term decisions;
• improve urban form and design to create great places to live and work; and
• foster infrastructure investment and resource use which promote prosperity and the fair
distribution of resources and opportunities.
The integrity of the way planning decisions are made is essential to both make the best decisions
and strengthen community trust. In contrast, examples of weak strategic planning objectives, limited
accountability for outcomes, post hoc community consultation, unfunded infrastructure needs, the
gaming of the approval process and the delay of appropriate development opportunities are signals of a
planning system under repair.

Planning System Reform – Intended Shift in Planning Effort (Productivity Commission 2011)

PIA has provided important insights to the planning reform process throughout Australia and
specifically in NSW in relation to:
• A clear hierarchy of strategic plans to link state regional, sub-regional and local planning;
• Statutory recognition of district and regional strategic plans;
• Early community engagement principles;
• Rationalisation of state policies;
• Simplifying development assessment pathways;
• Broader use of Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels (IHAPs);
• Affordable housing goals;
• Improving the integrity of voluntary planning agreements (VPAs); and
• Expanding the potential of ePlanning.

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PLANNING SUPPORTS THE MARKET AND DRIVES

PRODUCTIVITY
Planning assists the property market to work more efficiently and effectively by improving the way we
share and allocate the use of land – promoting competition and reducing negative external effects. Poor
land use decisions can restrict the enjoyment and productive use of land for generations, while good
planning can generate spill-over benefits which can both strengthen economic output and improve
social and environmental quality.
Planning has a key public interest role preventing land market failure leading to wider community costs.
Planners can share insights into how the benefits of an intervention (e.g. an incentive or a regulation)
outweigh its costs across economic social and environmental dimensions.

A classic example is planning for urban services. The demand for land for batching plants, bus depots,
materials recycling facilities and sub-stations is rarely strong enough to be competitive in the market.
Planning schemes enable these essential goods to locate where they are needed rather than be
marginalised to the city fringe where they may be ineffective or incur high costs on users.
A role for planning in the public interest anticipates losers as well as beneficiaries, while ensuring that
overall community welfare is maximised. Planners understand this and can identify the impacts on
various groups and provide evidence to inform and support the political process. Good planning ensures
that the benefits and costs of growth and investment are fairly shared across cities and regions and
prevent clusters of disadvantage.
Planning also contributes positively to wealth creation and productivity. Dr Ken Henry (Former
Secretary of the Treasury) appreciates a role for government in “creating the conditions for integration
and specialisation, by getting infrastructure and planning decisions right.” This includes making the
structure and form of cities deliver more value for business by intensifying and better connecting job
agglomerations.

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PLANNING FOR AGGLOMERATION

Boosting agglomeration economies is one way planning can contribute to city productivity.
This means increasing the density and connectivity of economic activity to offer higher levels of labour
productivity and improve the ease with which firms interact (World Bank 2009) .
Mapping of ‘effective job density’ represents the concentration of jobs and the extent to which clusters
are linked in terms of travel time. The figure below contrasts the central clustering of Melbourne’s jobs
with the more disjointed pattern in Sydney.

Effective Job Density in Melbourne and Sydney (SGS 2012)

SGS (2012) reported that a doubling of ‘effective job density’ in major Australian cities has the potential
to boost business productivity by 8% increase (even more in industry sectors most reliant on knowledge
exchange). This reinforces the value of providing capacity for the growth of employment clusters, linking
them together and ensuring that they are accessible to housing.
Planning for employment growth in Sydney’s CBD, the Global Economic Corridor and better linking
Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park and Macquarie Park with other job concentrations can boost Sydney’s
‘effective job density’.

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PLANNING FOR GREAT PLACES AND STRONG

COMMUNITIES

Much economic and social policy is blind to how it affects places. Strategic
planning influences the way public policies and development interact to transform
our cities and towns as places to live and work.
Our major cities are growing faster and changing at a rapid rate. For example, Sydney will need
to plan to accommodate another 725,000 dwellings to 2036 (i.e. more than 35,000 a year based
on Draft District Plan targets). The strategic planning effort is focussed on shaping this growth
mostly in existing urban areas in ways that:
• increase productivity, by making jobs and housing more accessible;
• ensure that infrastructure delivery is timely and servicing costs are not prohibitive;
• protect the environment and increase the value of our natural resources; and
• meet community needs and expectations for future living conditions.
Planning is critical in improving the capacity of communities to accommodate growth in ways that fulfil a
‘social contract’ for urban renewal. The community need to see a positive dividend in terms of amenity –
rather than growth being associated with a decline in living standards and quality of life.
To do this, planning disrupts the ‘business of usual’ incremental model of urban renewal.
Planners, with the community, need to prepare a vision of what new settlements can look like,
what function they perform and what cost might need to be incurred in meeting the needs of
future communities. Strategic planning maps the way forward by establishing:
• a precinct’s development potential, bringing together agencies to integrate
the timing, location and delivery of key infrastructure – not just roads and public transport,
but broader community needs for schools, public places and affordable and diverse housing;
• future land use and development controls; and
• a basis for decision making and funding for infrastructure and amenities.

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PLANNING FOR PLACES – ROUSE HILL REGIONAL CENTRE

Boosting agglomeration economies is one way planning can contribute to city productivity.
This means increasing the density and connectivity of economic activity to offer higher levels of labour
productivity and improve the ease with which firms interact (World Bank 2009) .
Mapping of ‘effective job density’ represents the concentration of jobs and the extent to which clusters
are linked in terms of travel time. The figure below contrasts the central clustering of Melbourne’s jobs
with the more disjointed pattern in Sydney.

Rouse Hill Regional Centre, GPT 2016

Long term planning for a regional centre, transit connectivity and the adoption of high environmental
and social planning standards has resulted in a vibrant mixed use centre for Sydney’s North West. The
retail hub is based around an open street and square layout enabling street activity to invigorate the
centre and sustain a variety of higher density housing forms.

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PLANNING RESPONDS TO LONG TERM MEGATRENDS

At the national level, PIA has published a series of documents under the heading
of Planning Matters: Shaping the World Today for Tomorrow.
One part of this was Journey towards Australia @ 50M,
a project focussing on what planning is; the history of
planning in Australia; where we are now; the megatrends
that will shape the future and what a responsive and
effective planning system would look like.
The overarching megatrend is population growth and
change. Australia’s population passed the 24 million
mark earlier this year and is projected to reach 40
million by 2050. The Commonwealth Government has
demonstrated a renewed recognition for planning and
managing growth. Never before has the value of planning
been more important or more potentially demonstrable
at the national level.

In NSW population is projected to grow substantially by about 1.5 million between 2016 and 2031.
The population of Sydney is expected to exceed 5 million this year and grow by about 1.35 million by
2031 – a level adding almost another third to the existing population. The scale of growth of Melbourne
is comparable. This poses challenges for all city makers where congestion, density conflicts, social
inequities and infrastructure provision are crucial issues.

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Add to population other megatrends - including: declining workforce participation with an increasing
proportion population over 65, resource dependency, climate change, digital disruption and the rise of
collaborative consumption – and there are significant challenges for the planning profession.

But planners’ skills and long term vision make the profession well equipped to manage urban growth,
determine infrastructure needs and shape places which can generate economic conditions to improve
the wellbeing of future communities. In regional areas, planners play a very pragmatic role in enabling
economic growth in support of key industries and centres.
Planning can contribute to long-term changes to city form that enable greater physical activity and
contribute to improved health and wellbeing outcomes of an ageing population.

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PLANNERS ADD VALUE IN DIFFERENT WAYS

The industry which PIA represents includes the following roles of planners in the property
industry, local and state government and consulting. Planning involves collaboration among
many different types of professionals to create better cities, towns and regions. We share many
common skills such as:
• Anticipating the future, defining goals and managing the means to achieve them;
• Engaging the community and industry and resolving competing interests;
• Coordinating multi-disciplinary teams to achieve cohesive results; and
• Understanding how policy influences communities and places.

The different roles and contributions of planners in the property industry, local
and state government and consulting include:

• Private land owners, developers and planning advisors: There is no new housing, commercial or
industrial growth without private investment in feasible well researched development proposals. This
fundamental contribution is aided by a planning process that helps investors manage their financial
and legal risks and which directs development along pathways that optimise the benefits to the
community, environment and the wider economy.

• Strategic planners: Anticipate the nature of change and determine the capacity of land and
identify specific needs to accommodate growth sustainably and with optimum economic
performance. Strategic planning is the first stage at which the community and land owners are
engaged in anticipating and managing future land use change. Strategic planners collaborate with
urban designers, engineers, environmental scientists and economists to formulate sustainable
development pathways.

• Development assessment planners: Maintain public trust in the way rights to the use of land are
fairly allocated via the planning system. These planners are the front line of community engagement.
Without the trust they generate and their skill in refining proposals, the validity and legitimacy of
development can be broken down – with the result that there is no guarantee that community
benefits can be achieved. A positive culture in which professionals are proactive in using planning
processes to deliver a strategic outcome is an important element of this role.

• Planning researchers: Academics and researchers contribute to the rigour and evidence base
to inform policy and land use decisions. This enables sound strategic planning and land use policy
decisions to win the support of the community, stakeholders and elected representatives.

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• Infrastructure planner/engineers and planner/economists: Identify project and program costs

and benefits, formulate business cases, integrate land use decisions and infrastructure prioritisation,
sequencing, funding and delivery.

• Planning system reform and policy planners: Set the standard for performance of future
development by designing decision making pathways that both reduce compliance costs and deliver
community benefits.

• Specialist social and environmental planners and designers: Engage with the community,
evaluate their needs, integrate environmental insights to create great places and projects

• Local and State government politicians: Communicate a strategic vision and broker the trade-offs
necessary to deliver consistent decisions on land use/resource allocation supported by evidence and
aligned with strategy.

The common thread is that planners deliver a public

benefit. The planning profession’s involvement in strategic
and development planning, regulatory reform, community
engagement and building the competency of the
profession is all to this end.
Planning is a much broader activity than the narrow
regulatory role often ascribed to it by economists and
politicians. In the words of RTPI’s Professor David
Adams: “Planning helps to create the kinds of places where
people want to live, work, relax and invest. Planning is
about improving the economy and productivity of our cities
and regions – by making places function better in the face
of growth and change.” To do this well planners need to
continually expand their skillset.
Planning graduates often have little exposure to the
world in which economists and central agency resource
allocators distribute funds and prioritise projects. The
disconnect is a concern as Pat Fensham noted in a PIA
award address in 2016: “Planners can be left behind in
debates within government focussed on the economic
merits of policies or investment.”

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PIA is very active in the development of planning competencies

and the improvement of professional course standards,
including an emphasis on economics as it relates to resource
allocation and development feasibility.

REGISTERED PLANNER
The Registered Planner qualification sets an industry benchmark
for competency and will continue to raise the bar in professional
development.

CONCLUSION
Planning is about outcomes, not processes. For this reason,
planners need to have a “can do” attitude so game changing
results can be demonstrated. The real value of planners is
seen in successful projects on the ground, and in the legacy of
integrated decisions and investment that continue to make great
places and communities.

END NOTES
1. PIA (2016), Through the Lens: Megatrends Shaping our Future. https://www.planning.org.au/policy/journey-
towards-50-million.
2. NSW Government (2010), Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036.
3. The CIE (2010) The benefits and costs of alternative growth paths for Sydney: economic, social and
environmental impacts, for Department of Planning NSW.
4. The CIE (2012) The benefits and costs of alternative growth paths for Sydney, focussing on existing urban areas,
for Department of Planning NSW.
5. Moore M (1995), Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government, Harvard University Press.
6. Productivity Commission (2011), Performance benchmarking of Australian business regulation: Planning,
zoning and development assessment, Research Report (page XLIII).
7. Henry K (2010), To build, or not to build: infrastructure challenges in the years ahead and the role of
Governments. Address to Conference on Economics of Infrastructure in a Globalised World: Issues Lessons
and Future Challenges (18 March 2010).
8. World Bank (2009), Reshaping Economic Geography, World Development Report 2009.
9. SGS (2012), Planning Directions for Metropolitan Sydney. Occasional Paper, September 2012.
10. Greater Sydney Commission (2016), Draft District Plans for Sydney.
11. Royal Town Planning Institute (UK) (2012), The, Value of Planning, by Professor David Adams, University of
Glasgow and Professor Craig Watkins University of Sheffield.
12. Fensham P (2016), Planning and the Public Interest, Presentation University of Sydney August 2016.

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