Central Coast Council slammed over 136-day wait for approvals amidst NSW housing crisis

One NSW council has been singled out by a developer over ballooning wait times for development approvals as the state battles a housing crisis.

Central Coast Council's average wait time for DA approval is more than 100 days.

A state planning bureaucrat has lamented with a developer the disastrous wait times of one underperforming council, with the Central Coast being accused of dropping the ball in the fight against the NSW housing crisis.

The frustration is highlighted in leaked correspondence seen by The Daily Telegraph, sent from the director of the Central Coast and Hunter Local and Regional Planning department Dan Simpkins, to a frustrated planner regarding a proposed 500-home development, called Wadalba East.

“I don’t have a solution to the frustrations being experienced in Wadalba East. I wish I did,” the director wrote in response to a letter from the planner which voiced anger over housing supply delays on the Central Coast.

The Wadalba East proposal is one of the key proposals for the region and it is stuck in the council’s planning pipeline. The land was rezoned in 2021 for up to 1200 new homes, with multiple landowners in the area putting forward development applications for almost 500 new homes.

But a decision has yet to be made on the applications, with the council stating there remain “significant constraints to development which have not been resolved”. It’s understood council remains unsatisfied with sewage and environmental issues.

NSW is suffering from a housing crisis and some councils are taking more than 100 days to approve development applications. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

It comes as the latest figures on the NSW Planning Dashboard show the average assessment time of a development application on the Central Coast is 136 days so far this year – the second longest time for all major councils outside of Sydney.

According to figures from Regional Development Australia Central Coast published late last year, the Central Coast Regional Plan’s current working target is 1625 new homes per year - but just 1169 new homes were finished the year prior, a shortfall of 28 per cent.

Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) acting CEO Gavin Melvin said the Central Coast “is a natural extension of Sydney’s north” and had to do its bit in addressing the statewide housing crisis.

“The Central Coast has huge potential for housing and industrial employment precincts (but) the Central Coast Council hasn’t been a top-performer in approving housing applications … We need a permanent injection of resources inside the council,” he said.

In a statement, the council said it was approving about 2500 dwellings per year, but just 61 per cent were being built or completed.

On Wadalba East, the council said: “These complex development issues are difficult to resolve on a site-by-site basis and are best resolved by the landholders working jointly together.

“Council continues to be engaged with the (planning department) … to facilitate better planning outcomes and the delivery of homes and jobs in accordance with agreed objectives.”

The council has been in administration since 2020 following a budget blowout of $565 million, with the local government elections later this year set to return elected councillors.

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Originally published as Central Coast Council slammed over 136-day wait for approvals amidst NSW housing crisis