Gold Coast City, South East Queensland (2009)





Gold Coast Planning Scheme Review, Community Engagement Program

Maximising the opportunities for stakeholder and community input into the plan-making process.



Outcomes


  • Delivered a suite of consultation activities that were appropriate for the technical nature of planning schemes, in collaboration with Humphrey Reynolds Perkins and Mary Maher and Associates
  • Engagement program that maximised stakeholder input and reporting that directly informed the content of the new Planning Scheme

key success factors

The engagement program was broad, rich and deep, engaging a range of stakeholders:

  • An advertising campaign was developed to encourage broad engagement program in the public notification period that included:
  • Over 80 Gold Coast City Council Officers
  • Seven State and Federal Government Departments
  • 35 external stakeholder and industry groups
  • Three local peak bodies
  • Two universities based on the Gold Coast

These were engaged through 10 different consultation tools and techniques, including:

  • Over 70 face to face interview
  • 291 phone interviews
  • One Councillor Workshop
  • One Internal Workshop
  • One External Workshop
  • Four Community Workshops and Forums
  • 128 phone and online surveys

An advertising campaign was developed to encourage broad engagement program in the public notification period that included:

  • Media release on the Council's website
  • Displays at the Council's customer service centres
  • Editorial and advertisements in the Gold Coast Bulletin
  • Media release distributed via email and fax to relevant stakeholder groups
  • On hold message at the Council's switchboard
  • News on local radio stations including Sea FM, Gold FM and Hot Tomato

Process

A bespoke enquiry framework was developed to inform the content of the new Planning Scheme, with a number of subject areas that were investigated:

  • Future issues and goals
  • Qualities of the new scheme
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • Scheme mechanisms
  • User friendliness
  • Administration
  • Types of development
  • P&D Online
  • Divisional issues