PIA CPD Course: Strategic Heritage Planning: Values, Models and Challenges
On Thursday, 29 October 2026, Heritage Workshop's founding director, Dr James Lesh, will deliver a full-day online course for the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA): Strategic Heritage Planning: Values, Models and Challenges.
Delivered via the PIA PLANET programme, this professional development course offers strategic planners, policy managers, urban designers, and heritage officers practical methods to translate cultural significance into defensible planning policy.
Grounding Planning Policy in the Burra Charter
The course begins with the foundational principles of the values-based approach, exploring how to operationalise the Burra Charter within Australian planning systems. Participants will examine how aesthetic, historic, scientific, and social values translate into strategic and statutory planning and broader urban policy.
The course then directly addresses the major urban priorities shaping planning practice in the late 2020s. Over the course of the day, participants will examine three key areas:
Climate Resilience and Retrofitting: Developing policy mechanisms that actively support adaptive reuse and the environmental retrofitting of historic buildings, reducing embodied emissions while protecting heritage fabric.
People-Centred Inclusivity: Applying engagement methods that capture diverse community narratives, ensuring underrepresented local histories inform municipal planning.
Design-Led Conservation: Writing local planning policies that encourage high-calibre contemporary architecture within heritage precincts.
By addressing these themes, the course shows how strategic frameworks can position heritage as an active driver of urban identity and environmental performance.
Structuring Future Heritage Strategies
Participants will also explore the end-to-end lifecycle of local policy preparation. Dr Lesh will review innovative structures for Municipal Heritage Strategies, Thematic Environmental Histories, Heritage Studies, and Structure Plans.
Attendees will learn how to draft policies that align municipal heritage controls with broader economic development and housing targets, ensuring strategies remain defensible under statutory scrutiny and provide maximum community benefit.
Course Details and Registration
This course is designed for local government officers, state agency planners, and private consultants seeking practical skills in strategic heritage policy across Australia.
Date: Thursday, 29 October 2026
Time: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm (AEDT)
Format: Online
CPD: 7 Continuing Professional Development points
Fees: $345 (PIA Members) | $570 (Non-Members)
Registrations are open directly through the Planning Institute of Australia portal.
