In countries throughout the developed world, large cities are growing while hinterland communities are shrinking. The unique challenges posed by population decline require unique solutions: as shrinking cities researchers have found, superimposing growth-oriented strategies onto shrinking communities is not effective in addressing the impacts of population decline. At the same time, a trend has emerged in planning practice: that of “standardizing” local planning policies. In 2006 in NSW, the State government introduced a standard template for its 152 Local Government Areas (LGAs) to streamline development controls. The standard template, which contains standard definitions, zones and clauses, must be used by local councils in preparing their Local Environmental Plans. While there is room for some local discretion, any discretion is subject to state government approval and must be consistent with state policies. In this paper, I ask: have shrinking communities in NSW used their limited discretion to craft decline-specific strategies? Using desk-based analysis of the LEPs of three shrinking LGAs in NSW (the City of Broken Hill and the Shires of Bland and Balranald), I explore whether shrinking communities in NSW have adapted standardized planning policies to their demographic circumstances. Overall, I argue that the neoliberal trend towards standardization is problematic for effective planning in shrinking communities because it values certainty and streamlining over innovation and creativity, both of which are desperately needed in shrinking communities.