NSW AGRITOURISM POLICY
This project was NSW Government initiative to support the recovery and resilience of our regional communities and farming by growing emerging industries that are supplementary to, or based on, agriculture. This will help to strengthen rural communities and provide diversity in the economy across NSW.
We worked with the NSW Small Business Commissioner and NSW Department of Planning Housing and Infrastrucutre to support NSW farmers and farming communities by rationalising the planning framework and proposing fast track approval pathways for agritourism activities. These include farm stay accommodation, farm events and farm gate activities.
We undertook research in collaboration with Rose Wright and her team from Regionality - experts in agritourism business development, to understand the pinch points in the approval process. Mapped out new processes and made recommendations for changes to the planning framework in NSW to support farming businesses.
We brought our expertise in policy, architecture and development assessment processes - understanding what is required to design spaces that are practical, low cost but enhance the farm experience (and the building code implications) and craft a planning process that filters out unnecessary assessment but considers and real impacts.
Additionally, changes are also proposed to improve approval pathways for low-impact agricultural activities including small-scale processing plants, rebuilding of farm infrastructure, stock containment areas, farm dams, biosecurity for poultry farms and pig farms and controls surrounding the setback of rural dwellings.
We also prepared the guidelines - Setting Up a Small Agritourism Business to help farmers navigate the planning process and understand what approvals they need (inside and outside the planning system) to get their business started and help it grow.
This was a project of personal interest to director Peter Smith - who spends many holidays camping in regional Australia - giving him the chance to explore more of regional NSW and help regional communities thrive.
Documents:
Setting Up a Small Agritourism Business
| Location | Regional NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| Client | NSW Department of Planning and NSW Small Business Commissioner | |
| Partner | Regionality |
