Background to Vision 2040

Sydney’s population is projected to grow to 8 million over the next 40 years.

To help plan for this growth, the Greater Sydney Commission released the Greater Sydney Region Plan - A Metropolis of Three Cities, an integrated land use and transport plan, which builds on a vision of three cities - the Western Parkland City, the Central River City and Eastern Harbour City - where most residents live within 30 minutes of their jobs, education and health facilities, services and great places.

District Plans provide guidelines for implementing A Metropolis of Three Cities- the Greater Sydney Region Plan at a District level. There are five district plans - the Western City District Plan, Central City District, Eastern City District (covers Randwick), North District and South District, which were made final in March of 2018. They inform local environmental plans, community strategic plans and the assessment of planning proposals.

Amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 in March of 2018 now require all Councils to review the local planning framework and give effect to the planning priorities and actions in the relevant district plan within three years of the district plan being made final.

The Local Strategic Planning Statement will be the key resource to understand how strategic and statutory plans will be implemented at the local level. The following diagram illustrates the relationship between the Regional and District plans and Councils Strategic Planning documents.