Greater Geelong city council’s planning permit failures despite increasing demand

The Geelong city council is struggling to keep up with skyrocketing demands for planning permits.

The Greater Geelong city council has failed to meet increasing planning permit demands.

Although the demand for planning applications increased across the Greater Geelong region, the council has continuously failed to deliver its decisions on time to meet regulation deadlines.

The Greater Geelong region was one of just three councils to see an increase in the number of matters heard before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s planning and environment list between 2021 and 2022, along with Hobson’s Bay and Whitehorse.

In total, the City of Greater Geelong had the seventh highest number of planning and environment applications referred to VCAT in 2022, according to the tribunal’s 2021-22 annual report.

Despite this demand, data from the City of Greater Geelong’s 2021-22 annual report suggests it is falling behind regulation deadlines.

The report conceded it took a median of 80 days for planning applications to be submitted and a decision to be made, meaning Geelong permit applicants had to wait an average of 20 days more.

“Reduced staffing capacity due to the impact of Covid-19 and staff shortages resulted in a decrease in the proportion of planning applications processed within statutory frameworks,” it explained.

For the applications that made it to VCAT on appeal, three-quarters of the decisions were upheld by the tribunal.

Geelong resident Lee Bricknell took on the city council in July 2022 to appeal its decision to refuse him a permit application to develop a two-storey dwelling on an empty lot in Fyansford.

The council said it was a “sensitive land use” because it was within 200 metres of an operational solid inert waste landfill.

According to tribunal documents, the council was concerned about the “high risk adverse amenity, human health and safety outcomes for the proposed use and development of a single dwelling”.

VCAT senior member Rachel Naylor said it could not be concluded that the landfill gas mitigation risks could be addressed, including after the closure of the landfill, and ruled in favour of the council.

“As such, I am not persuaded that the proposed land use is compatible with the nearby landfill land use,” Ms Naylor said.

The council did see a decrease in the cost of the statutory planning service, with the amount dropping from $2,415.62 in the 2019 reporting period to $2,260.19 in 2022.

With 21 out of 29 applications made in favour of the city council, it meant just eight applicants were granted an appeal in 2022.

In a VCAT decision against the council, tribunal member Kerrie Birtwistle granted a permit to Villawood Homes and Eden Builders to develop 41 dwellings in Grovedale.

Prior to the hearing, Villawood Homes and Eden Builders submitted amended plans but the council continued to refuse this because it believed the dwellings to be an “overdevelopment of the site”.

Originally published as Greater Geelong city council’s planning permit failures despite increasing demand