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Projects that will deliver design excellence are required by many other city councils such as Sydney. Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith, and Bayside Councils, in addition the State Government has initiated revised Design Excellence Guidelines.

The objective is to provide the highest quality of Architectural, landscape and urban design. The process commits to aligning with State Government and other Councils and support a development outcome that exceeds the mandatory requirements that are required under existing development assessment regulations.

The outcome is for development to be better in many ways; design excellence will consider the visual quality of new buildings and the spaces around them as well as environmental performance, sustainability, social contribution and wellbeing.

This Policy (and Guidelines) is a Council requirement of the Chatswood CBD Planning and Urban Design Strategy to 2036, so it will be a requirement that a developer must satisfy prior to submitting a Development Application for new development in the Chatswood CBD. 

The Design Excellence Guidelines may also be applied to other new development not within the Chatswood CBD although this will require a Planning Proposal to amend the current planning controls in the Local Environmental Plan.

The objective is that design excellence will be required where existing planning controls are amended that with deliver significant change and uplift in value of a development outcome.  This value uplift justifies the commitment and investment in the project outcome.

The objective is to encourage variety and diversity; some developments will have a single design reviewed by a panel, with other developments requiring the review of several schemes by different design groups.