Central Coast Council call for public comment on DA objection rules
CENTRAL Coast Council has backflipped on the number of objections required to stall processing of development applications.
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CENTRAL Coast Council has backflipped on the number of objections required to stall processing of development applications.
Council voted in December to reduce the number required to bring a matter before council from 50 to 15. It was rescinded the following day, and the matter arose again at this week’s council meeting.
The issue will now be put out for public consultation and a report will come back to council.
Until then, the original policy requiring 50 objections remains in place.
Councillors were divided over the feedback they had received, with some saying they had positive comments from the community and others taking criticism.
Last week, Central Coast developer Tony Denny told the Express the move was “disappointing and harsh” and threatened to take his money elsewhere if council adopt “road-blocking” measures.
Councillor Jeff Sundstrom said it would be disappointing if council was going to be “dictated to by a developer”.
“It disgusts me to think that we should put any weight on Mr Denny’s consideration over and above any resident,” he said.
Councillor Greg Best said the decision allowed staff to inform councillors of the full implications of the reduction, as well as allowing the community to respond.
“We are utilising our staff and asking them questions around the best way to go forward with this,” he said. “There’s no magic number. 15 may not be the final figure, it may be 10.”
He said he wanted to stop council meetings from drowning in carport and pergola applications and meetings running past 1am. The original decision to drop the number of objections was made at 12.45am.
Council’s group leader for environment and planning Scott Cox said the decision to reduce to 15 would have impacts on resourcing. He informed councillors that the council would already be receiving an extra 10 to 20 reports a month under recent changes handed down by the Department of Planning.
Mr Cox said developments with more than 10 per cent variation to the Local Environment Plan would now automatically come before council. He urged council to consider this when making the final decision.
Council policy states that any two councillors can call up a development application at any time, despite the number of objections.