How are planning principles different from a master plan?
The Bays Precinct consultation is about gaining agreed planning principles for the area in the long term. While these have sometimes been referred to as a 'master plan' in local media and commentary, this is not correct in any urban planning or legal sense.
A master plan is a specific term in urban planning. It denotes a planning instrument, with legal force, that describes the land use, built form parameters, traffic and other environmental constraints of a particular site or group of sites.
Master plans are highly detailed, technical documents, often running to hundreds of pages, that are publicly exhibited and require approval by a consent authority such as a Council or Planning Minister. Once approved they form the guideline for all future developments on the subject site/s.
The Bays Precinct seeks to address the step before master plans can be written. That is, addressing the 'big questions' about lands that may change use:
- If the existing land use is changing, then what sort of use do we want there in future?
- What is the best way to determine that use? What questions should be considered? How will economic, cultural and environmental needs be balanced?
- What sort of built form, transport, and other infrastructure is required to support the new use?
Addressing these questions now will make the process of master plan development easier, clearer and more transparent in the future, if present land uses change in the Bays Precinct.
In the mean time there are a number of existing master plans for areas in the Bays Precinct that will remain valid for so long as the sites are used in line with the master plan conditions. These include master plans for Rozelle Bay, Blackwattle Bay and Bank Street, White Bay and Glebe Island, and the Sydney Harbour Regional Environment Plan.
