Delivering an engagement process to effectively balance project requirements with diverse expectations.
Situation Explained
Gladstone Regional Council’s planning scheme, Our Place Our Plan, commenced on 12 October 2015 and was amended on 3 July 2017 (version 2). The planning scheme was prepared by Gladstone Regional Council (GRC) with a 17-year planning horizon to 2031. Our Place Our Plan was the first planning scheme prepared for the amalgamated local government areas of Calliope, Gladstone and Miriam Vale.
The project team, led by Reel Planning, with LPC sub-contracted to design and deliver engagement, commenced the 10-year review of the scheme in November 2023. The review’s primary aim was to provide a recommendation to Council on the best pathway (new planning scheme, major or minor amendment) to ensure that the scheme remains contemporary and reflects local social, economic and environmental conditions.
The Gladstone Region covers 10,489m2, from Curtis Island in the north to Rosedale in the south. The Region’s size and topography, covering coastline as well as a significant area classed as rural, means that its communities are significantly varied in terms priorities, scale of development and level of engagement with Council activities. Additionally, the project’s engagement commenced in the lead-up to the 2024 Queensland local government elections, meaning high levels of scrutiny from both internal and external key stakeholders.
Our Approach
Our objectives for design and delivery of engagement were to:
- Ensure participants across the Gladstone Region felt listened to and had capacity to contribute throughout the process,
- Collaborate with key stakeholders to identify and understand industry need and values as related to a planning scheme for the Gladstone Region.
- Inform through fact-based engagement.
- Provide equal access to the engagement process for individuals, communities and groups across the Gladstone Region.
- Reach community members across the region.
We planned and delivered an industry briefing and workshop, an industry survey, 3 community drop-in sessions and community survey. This approach aimed to gather detailed information about how the industry interacts with the planning scheme, and whether the current planning scheme is meeting the industry’s and community’s expectations.
Results
We used a mix of quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques to develop a clear, insightful and data-driven understanding of community and stakeholder values and their experience interacting with the planning scheme.
The engagement process identified where community and stakeholder values aligned and where they diverged. While community members expressed concerns that what they love about the Region may be lost, industry stakeholders were more concerned about the economic landscape from the energy transition. This feedback outlined the desire for change to the planning scheme.
The Planning Scheme Review report recommended opportunities to strengthen alignment with recent local and state policy, update mapping and studies that serve as the scheme’s foundation and reflect emerging trends throughout the Gladstone Region.