The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) is currently working on a range of initiatives to support a stronger focus on local character at all levels of the planning system. This includes a series of events showcasing best practice planning outcomes and how they have involved communities and consideration of local character. Our Director, John O’Callaghan, was recently invited to speak at one of these events, the ‘Local Character Symposium’.

The Symposium provided an opportunity to share knowledge and build awareness to support implementation of place-based, design led and collaborative planning initiatives. John’s talk focused on how place activation can enhance local character and facilitate design recommendations to improve the physical fabric of our cities. He shared examples of our previous placemaking and activation work including our tool for measuring and identifying place character with different communities.

If you’d like a copy of the presentation or more information about our Character Tool please get in touch!