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What did we do?

The Playford Growth Project incorporated a new Playford Growth Area Structure Plan as well as two amendments to the Development Plan that supported its implementation namely the

Playford Urban Growth Areas and General Section Development Plan Amendment and the Greater Edinburgh Parks Employment Lands Development Plan Amendment. Engagement on the three processes ran concurrently.

The engagement process was facilitated over two key stages – pre-draft and post-draft – with the latter also incorporating the statutory consultation requirements of the Development Act.

What did we learn?

Opportunities identified for improvement included development of the engagement plan earlier in the process; improved allocation of resources; and additional time to prepare and disseminate communication materials and to plan events.

What went well?

Successful engagement of the community was important so that the three strategic planning processes were informed by local knowledge. Key elements of the project’s success in the area of engagement include:

• commitment to long term relationship building and involvement of stakeholders early in the process to help shape the plans prior to their public release
• the large number and variety of engagement options made available to the public upon release of the documents that expanded significantly on the basic statutory requirements of the Development Act
• the large number of engagement options and participation rates in both the pre and post draft  engagement  stages
• the content of the submissions received, of which the majority were in favour of the intent of the project
• the number of submissions received being relatively low for such a major project (approximately 163 submissions in total)

What was new or different about this engagement?

STAGE 1 – PRE-DRAFT

The pre-draft engagement on the Playford Growth Project focused on building strong relationships with key stakeholders and landowners, understanding local

community issues and characteristics, and reviewing past engagement outcomes and issues raised.

The main advantage of pre-draft engagement activities was that it identified potential issues early in the process, prior to the release of draft documents. Key engagement activities were conducted over a two-year period involving:

• Regular meetings with government agencies, including workshops around specific issues  raised
• A number of meetings with individual landowners and landowner representative groups to address issues and concerns in the lead up to the draft structure plan
• Meetings, information sessions and workshops with local councils to work through issues and directions in the lead up to the draft structure plan.