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AI Transparency and Ethics Policy
at StraightLine Planning

At StraightLine Planning, we believe that the intersection of technology and professional expertise should always result in greater clarity.

 

As experienced town planners and designers, we also understand that a straight line is the shortest distance between a problem and a solution.

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Our AI Transparency and Ethics Policy outlines how we integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our workflow. Th goal is to remain highly efficient while ensuring that the professional judgment, the architectural analysis and design, and the legislative interpretation are all in the hands of qualified human experts.

Our Human-First Philosophy:

The planning and design landscape in New South Wales is governed by complex layers of legislation in the form of State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) Local Environmental Plans (LEPs) and Development Control Plans (DCPs). These frameworks require contextual intuition.

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While AI tools are more and more a part of daily life, we maintain a Human-First hierarchy:

  • Strategy is Human: Every planning strategy is devised by an experienced planner.

  • Design is Human: Every line on a floor plan is drawn by a qualified architect or drafts person.

  • Accountability is Human: Every document that leaves our office is reviewed and signed off by a professional who carries the liability and the expertise for that work.

How We Use AI:

We use AI as a specialised tool to assist with specific low-risk administrative tasks.

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We use a website chatbot -

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To provide 24/7 assistance to new clients, we host an AI-driven chatbot on our website to answer general questions, explain common planning terms and guide users to the right contacts forms. The tool provides general information only. It is not a substitute for formal planning advice and does not have access to specific client files or active project data.

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We use Notebook LM AI -

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Finding highly specific information in unfamiliar documents such as niche Estate Design Guidelines or historical Master Plans can be time-consuming. We occasionally use tools like NotebookLM because unlike LLM models, it does not hallucinate or make up answers, rather it searches the specific uploaded source. This can help our planners to locate specific keywords or clauses within 200 page PDFs.​ Any information found by the AI is manually verified against the original source document by a planner before being used in a project, for example requesting that the model identify page numbers where the specific information was sourced, and then cross-referencing when we have what we need.

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We use AI in editorial refinement -

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Clear communication is so important in planning. We occasionally use AI to improve the clarity or grammar of selected sentences within a report and/or ensure that technical jargon is translated into plain English for better client understanding. The AI is used to edit existing human-written text, not to generate the ideas or the findings themselves.

 

Where we do not use AI:

Town Planning Reports -

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AI does not write our Statements of Environmental Effects or Preliminary Planning Assessments. These are always drafted by experienced planners.

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Floor Plan Analysis -

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AI is not used to create, analyse or fix architectural designs. These are 100% managed by our in-house architects/draftspeople.

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Correspondence -

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We do not use AI to write emails or emulate voices for phone calls. Every email, text message and phone call is from a real team member.

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Legislative Interpretation -

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AI is not used to interpret the intent of a council's DCP. Expert planners provide all interpretations.

Data - Privacy and Security:

  • No private Client Data is uploaded to public AI models.

  • Sensitive site details are redacted if a document is being processed for summary.

  • Designs stay within our secure, local servers and are not used to train external AI.

Overview of our Principles

Our AI policy is guided by...


Human Oversight and Accountability

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Every piece of work completed by StraightLine Planning is reviewed and approved by qualified planners, architects or draftspeople. Any partal use of AI is overseen by a human professional who maintains responsibility for the final output.


Transparency

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We disclose our use of AI openly. Clients are always welcome to ask how AI may have been involved in their project and we provide clear documentation and/or advice about any relevant use.


Ethical Use and Data Privacy

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We ensure that any data shared with AI systems complies with privacy regulations and with the trust our clients place in us. Sensitive or identifying information is never uploaded to public AI platforms. Where AI tools are used, they operate within secure environments.


Professional Integrity

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Our work meets the professional standards expected of qualified practitioners under relevant planning and architectural codes of conduct. AI is never used to circumvent or replace professional duties or responsibilities.


Continuous Review

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AI technologies evolve rapidly. We periodically review our methods and update this policy to ensure any use of AI remains appropriate, compliant and beneficial to our clients.

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