EDevelopment-assessment as "smart eplanning" for New South Wales (NSW) Australia

Planning reforms in NSW Australia are politicians' favorite mechanism of (promising) fast economic growth and very high levels of livability. The ePlanning component of recent reforms consists of Electronic Housing Codes System for speedy self-assessment of development proposals, online tracking of development applications, interactive buildings online tool to interpret development standards and a google based online mapping tool that shows planning rules applicable to individual land parcels. This paper analyzes the motivations behind the uptake of computer technology in NSW planning system, and the association of that technology with the broader reform agenda. The paper also casts a critical look over the selec-tiveness of the computer tools chosen by state authorities who are eager to use facilitating, speeding up, efficiency enhancing, automation type of computer tools for mostly day to day planning. They are not very keen at using the collaborative policy making tools that can be used for develop-ing, discussing, visualizing and choosing alternatives.