Of concern to REDWatch was the Green Paper’s proposal that community input into the planning system would be at a regional planning level – a long way from the neighbourhood of most resident groups. No indication is given as to how the local fine grain will be reflected in regional plans nor how residents will be engaged to have a real say in high-level strategic planning.
The model is that once regional plans are produced anything that accords with that plan can then be built without the current DA processes. Residents get input regionally but if it is not right then they lose the right to vet DAs locally. These are just some of the concerns raised by REDWatch in its submission which can be found at: www.redwatch.org.au/redwatch/statements/2012redwatch/120914redw/.