Revealed: Paul Scully’s plan to stop the planning system sweating the small stuff’

Here’s how new terraces, townhouses and apartment blocks could bypass council planners under a new proposal being considered by Paul Scully to speed up housing builds.

A radical plan allowing new terraces, townhouses, and six-storey apartment blocks to bypass council development applications is being considered by Planning Minister Paul Scully, as a way to un-clog the planning system.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Mr Scully is looking at increasing the type of buildings that can get an automatic green light in areas earmarked for higher density.

The plan involves expanding “complying development certificates,” which allow straightforward renovation and building works to proceed without a DA if they tick all the right boxes.

Under the plans, which are still being considered, apartment blocks up to six storeys high could be classed as “complying developments” and approved in less than a month.

Complying developments – which currently include new houses in greenfield areas and simple renovations – can get approval to proceed in as little as 20 days.

Low to medium-rise apartment blocks could be deemed ‘complying developments’ and get approval in under a month. Picture: Supplied

Mr Scully said that fast-tracking medium-density housing as “complying development” would get low-risk projects off the ground faster, while freeing up council planners to consider more complex developments.

“We’re sweating the small stuff which is clogging up the planning system,” Mr Scully told The Telegraph. “Currently, 90 per cent of development applications are for projects worth $1 million or less.”

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the system needs to stop ‘sweating the small stuff’. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“We’ve got to have an outcome-focused planning system in NSW, not one exclusively focused on the process.”

The sweeping reforms are being pursued as part of Mr Scully’s attempts to rewrite the Environmental Planning and Assessment (EP&A) Act.

The Minns Labor government has been working with the Coalition to overhaul the 45-year old planning legislation, with both sides acknowledging the planning rules are no longer fit for purpose.

Legislation to replace the EP&A Act could be introduced to parliament as early as next month.

Thirteen highly skilled design practices have been commissioned by the Minns Labor government to contribute additional low- and mid-rise designs to the NSW Pattern Book. Picture: Supplied

The government has already introduced a raft of measures aimed at fixing the broken planning system, including a fast-tracked approvals process for major developments, a pre-approved “pattern book” for smaller buildings, and zoning reforms.

However, last month’s budget predicted that the government will only deliver 244,000 homes by 2029, falling far short of the 377,000 outlined in agreed targets.

Pattern book designs will be green-lit through the planning system. Picture: Supplied

Opposition Planning spokesman Scott Farlow said he is “open” to expanding complying development certificates. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Opposition Planning spokesman Scott Farlow said the Coalition would be “open” to expanding complying development certificates to higher density buildings “in appropriate locations”.

According to newly released government data, councils are still failing to meet targets for how quickly they assess DAs.

Only 40 per cent of councils are meeting their target time frames, with medium-density dwellings taking 158 days to be assessed.

Apartment developments are taking, on average, six months to get a DA assessment.

Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) NSW CEO Stuart Ayres said that while there had been “modest improvements” in the time taken to assess DAs, councils needed to step up.

Mr Ayres welcomed plans to fast-track six-storey apartment blocks as a way to “make the planing system more productive”.

“Sydney needs a planning system that encourages developers and designers to deliver good-looking, feasible and functional buildings without having to wade through layers of red tape,” he said.

Originally published as Revealed: Paul Scully’s plan to stop the planning system sweating the small stuff’