Riverine Land Planning and Design Guidelines
Visualising built form outcomes along the Murray River
The Challenge
Western NSW is home to many of Australia’s most significant river ecosystems including the Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan rivers. As a vital natural resource, rivers are fragile and complex ecosystems which are vulnerable to change. They are also highly desirable locations for urban settlement and in recent years, the unique natural features and landscape character that make rivers and waterfront locations desirable are being eroded. This is attributed to a range of increasing development pressures, competing land use priorities and inadequate planning and management.
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment commissioned this project to develop a strategic framework that fills a policy void and to promote best practice planning and design in waterfront and riverine environments. CoFutures worked in partnership with RMCG to develop a suite of design guidelines that provide a framework for the sustainable management of built form outcomes in riverine and waterfront environments across Western NSW.
What We Did
- Reviewed existing State and Local Environmental Policies to identify policy gaps.
- Identified and analysed ‘hot spot’ locations where poor built form outcomes were being achieved.
- Reviewed previous and proposed planning applications and considered their outcomes and impact on riverine environments.
- Crafted principles and design guidelines to manage urban development along waterfront areas.
- Prepared a suite of supporting illustrations, maps and cross sections to explain key design principles and provide clarity on desirable built form outcomes.
Outcomes
The Design Guidelines were exhibited for public comment alongside the draft Riverina Murray Regional Plan in 2022. The Guidelines set out best practice land use planning principles which will contribute to improving planning, design and land use outcomes in riverine environments. They also illustrate technical planning concepts using clear and easy-to-understand diagrams and illustrations. The Guidelines will be used in a wide range of applications from strategic plan-making to the assessment of planning proposals and development applications across 12 river-fronting LGAs.
