Planning panel members

Kathy Mitchell was appointed as Chief Panel Member in June 2004.

Prior to this, Kathy had been a full-time senior panel member with Planning Panels Victoria since its inception in 1996, and an occasional sessional member with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) from 1999 to 2004.

Kathy is the immediate past President (2004 - 2011) and a Fellow of the Victoria Planning and Environmental Law Association (VPELA). She has been a state judge for the Urban Development Industry Association - Victorian Chapter (UDIA) Awards of Excellence since 2003.

Kathy has a Bachelor of Arts in Planning, a Graduate Diploma in Urban Sociology and a Master of Arts in Planning (Research). She has previously worked in the private sector, local government, and as an academic.

Brett Davis is a qualified town planner with over 23 years’ experience in project management, urban and strategic planning, property, and development management and facilitation.

Brett is the immediate past President of the Planning Institute of Australia (Vic Division), and served as the Victorian Division’s Vice-President from 2009-2011 and President from 2011-2013.

Brett is a member of VPELA, and a 2010 Fellow of the Leadership Ballarat and Western Region Program. From 2011-2015, Brett was a member of the Building Appeals Board. Brett is based in regional Victoria and has worked extensively across the state on regional planning matters.

Brett has also worked throughout Australia on numerous large-scale projects and led multi-disciplinary teams for public and private organisations. He has sat on a number of panels and advisory committees, including the Woolworths Oxygen Advisory Committee and the Logical Inclusions Advisory Committee.

Ms McRobert has qualifications in town planning and urban sociology. She has more than 30 years experience in town planning at state and local levels in both statutory planning and policy development. She was appointed as a sessional panel member in 1991 and is now a full time Senior Panel Member.

She has chaired a wide range of major panels, Advisory Committees and Environmental Effects Statements relating to statewide social and environmental policy reviews, comprehensive planning scheme reviews, structure plans, major infrastructure developments, and large scale urban redevelopments.

Trevor McCullough has qualifications in civil engineering, planning, and environment and social Planning.

Trevor has over 30 years’ experience in Victorian state and local government.

He has previously worked as a director of planning, engineering services and community services at Ballarat, Hobsons Bay and Kingston City councils for a total of 15 years. Trevor was also a traffic engineer and transport planner at VicRoads, and project manager and operations manager at the Public Transport Corporation. He is a former board member of Southern Family Life youth and family services agency.

Trevor is a senior panel member at Planning Panels Victoria and coordinates the Transport and Infrastructure Reference Group.

Lester Townsend was appointed as a senior panel member with Planning Panels Victoria in October 2005.

Lester has considerable experience in strategic and statutory planning, and project implementation.  He has qualifications in town planning and sociology, holding a Bachelor of Town and Regional Planning (University of Melbourne) and a Graduate Diploma of Sociology (LaTrobe University).

Before becoming a senior panel member, Lester was a sessional member, commencing in  1997. Additionally, he has provided strategic and statutory planning advice for a range of local and state government organisations, and private companies.  He has a particular interest in integrated planning and has been involved in a number of transport and urban design projects.

Lester has expertise in plain-English communication and drafting. He is a Fellow of VPELA and has previously served on its board. He is also the former president of the Australia Institute of Urban Studies.

Con Tsotsoros was appointed as a senior panel member at Planning Panels Victoria in July 2013.

Con has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Planning, and has 14 years’ experience in the private sector, seven years in state government planning and  stints in local government. Con was formerly Assistant Director Statutory Systems in the former Department of Planning and Community Development, where he led major planning reform agenda initiatives. He specialises in retail, economic and strategic planning.

Con is the Chair of the Residential Zones Standing Advisory Committee and has chaired significant planning scheme amendments involving building heights, mandatory controls, master and strategic planning. These include the St Kilda Road North Precinct, Chapel Street reVision, Traralgon Growth Areas Review and Nunawading Activity Centre strategic redevelopment site (former brickworks).

Con is a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and a previous committee member.  He is currently on the board of the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association.

Nick Wimbush holds undergraduate qualifications in environmental science and postgraduate qualifications in public policy and law.

He has over 25 years’ experience in a variety of state and local government roles in Western Australia and Victoria. These include managing environmental impact assessment of major projects with the West Australian Environment Protection Authority and advising the Victorian government in a senior role on coastal planning and development.

Nick has extensive experience in the private sector in Western Australia, Indonesia and Victoria with consulting firms, and established and ran his own environmental consultancy from 2002-2006, specialising in integrated coastal zone management.

Since 2006 he has been a full time senior panel member with Planning Panels Victoria, responsible for chairing, or being a member of, significant environment effects inquiries, panels and advisory committees, including the Port Phillip Channel Deepening, Victorian Desalination Project and East-West Link.

Nick was a sessional lecturer at postgraduate level in coastal zone and catchment management at RMIT University in Melbourne from 2002-2006. He is a Fellow of the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association, a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, and is on the board, and the Treasurer of, the National Environmental Law Association.