Lismore City Council will look to establish a committee to assess all development applications submitted for approval.

Lismore council will look at how development applications are assessed.

Lismore City Council will investigate establishing a committee to oversee development applications.

Lismore councillors may soon have a say on all development applications presented to the council.

Currently, most development applications in the Lismore area are assessed and approved by staff.

Only the more contentious DAs, flagged by councillors or the general manager, are discussed at council meetings.

Cr Adam Guise raised the motion to investigate forming a Planning Review Committee, saying it would give councillors more oversight on planning decisions and facilitate smoother development approval.

He said councillors would be involved earlier in the planning process, allowing them to assess all projects.

He also said this would help foster better relationships with the council planning staff.

However it would not take away from councillors' rights to call up projects they wanted to discuss and would not delay the approval process.

Other councils have similar committees, and Byron Shire Council's model was given as an example.

Councillor Eddie Lloyd said a committee would help "bring down explosive and adversarial conditions in the chamber", as more of the more contentious issues would be dealt with prior to them being brought to a council meeting.

Resident Janine Wilson, a regular council watcher, said the council had a desperate need for this committee.

She implored councillors to vote in favour of the review as it would help restore the public's faith in the sector and put the council "back on the road to recovery".

Mayor Vanessa Ekins used her casting vote to support the motion to further investigate the establishment of the committee.