Griffith City Council, in central New South Wales, is developing a fully integrated growth strategy plan for the next 30 years.
“A growth strategy has not been completed in New South Wales before,” said Brent McAlister, Director of Environmental Services at Griffith City Council.
“This is a comprehensive and integrated 30 year land use, infrastructure and financial plan.
“Many Councils have combined the first two, but none to my knowledge have combined all three.”
During the 1990s, Griffith has experienced a significant upturn in development. Its current population is approximately 20,500.
It was recognised that Council’s long term planning had not kept pace with this development. In particular, Council’s long term infrastructure and land use planning needed a comprehensive review.
“We have produced three ten year landuse release maps and employed Hyder consulting to produce a 30 year infrastructure inventory for all our services,” Brent McAlister said.
“We are now putting all those costs into a financial model developed by the Department of Land & Water Conservation. Council’s consultant has modified this model to include non water and sewerage services so that we can get a complete financial model for the whole of Council.”
Using a joint venture approach with the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, Council adopted several principles when commencing this project.
A multi disciplinary working group was formed to manage the project, comprising planners, engineers and accountants.
Extensive consultation with community and developers is also an important element.
The integration of landuse, infrastructure and financial planning is a priority throughout the process.
“Council will now have a very powerful tool to plan its future,” Brent McAlister said. “I believe many other Councils will follow this path.”
