Sydney’s Blacktown City Council is piloting an artificial intelligence (AI) system which it hopes will make development applications faster and less convoluted, particularly for individual residents.
The generative AI tool is named DAISY, and it was introduced to address a practical issue in local planning, a council spokesperson told iTnews: more than 80 per cent of development applications received by Blacktown come from individual residents, rather than professional developers.
Many applications are delayed because basic information, or documentation, is missing at the point of lodgement, the spokesperson said.
DAISY is aimed at helping with residential deveploment questions around applicable property planning rules, the type of application and documentation for it needed, and how to prepare such submissions ot the NSW Planning Portal.
It can be used for low density residential development like alterations to residents’ houess, or the construction of secondary dwellings.
The AI system uses information and planning controls from the council’s local environmental plan (LEP), development control plans (DCPs), and NSW state environmental protection plans (SEPPs).
Blacktown Council warned that DAISY can make mistakes as an AI assistant, and advised applicants unsure about something to check with the council, or refer to official documents.
The council also said that the AI can only provide general guidance and all final decisions are made by the local authority’s staff.
DAISY was launched in January this year, and while it’s still early days, the spokesperson said “initial usage data from the soft launch is seen as encouraging.”
“On average, more than 450 questions are being asked of DAISY each week, and over 60 development applications are being commenced with DAISY support,” the spokesperson said.
Presently, Blacktown City Council is look at early usage data and interaction levels rather than drawing conclusions about longer term outcomes, the spokesperson said.
Funding for DAISY was through a $190,000 grant from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastrucure’s Artificial Intelligence in NSW Planning – Council Early Adopter Grant Program.
DAISY was developed by Sydney technology consulting firm Gadali, which partnered with Enterprise AI/Adaptovate, who are the owners of DAISY.
Gadali provided the technical integration such as connecting DAISY to data sources such as Blacktown Council’s flood mapping, and linking with NSW’s Planning Portal, plus integratiion with the local authority’s website.
DAISY is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, and the council said no data is used to train third-party models.