Council’s failing mum-and-dad renovators as DA approval times blow out across Sydney
COUNCILS are struggling to meet new State Government benchmarks for housing approvals with waiting times for development applications blowing out across Sydney. One mayor puts the delay down to the “indecipherable jargon” in DAs.
Inner West
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COUNCILS are failing mum-and-dad renovators, with waiting times for DAs blowing out across Sydney.
The state government has set a target of a 40-day turnaround for 2019, but there appears little prospect of that happening with frustration building at the DA delays.
The worst performing council was Cumberland, which took a whopping 125 days to process applications last year and will need to turbocharge its approvals process to get on the good side of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Inner West Council took 79 days on average to turn around DAs, eight days slower than the state average.
Mayor Darcy Byrne put the delay down to the “indecipherable jargon” in the development applications.
“You need a PhD before you can understand the letter council sends you in the mail about your DA,” Mr Byrne said.
“It’s OK for the likes of Mirvac, which employs the country’s best consultants to prepare their plans, but (it’s a different story) if you’re talking to a local family just trying to put a deck out the back.
“I have actually considered sending our planning department off to plain English language school.”
City of Sydney Council’s average was 78 days, but it processed 90 per cent of DAs within 60 days — an improvement of eight days from the previous 12 months.
The council is aiming to slash approval times for DAs not requiring notification, such as an internal fit-out of a building, to 30 days by the end of this financial year.
Ryde took an average of 89 days, 11 days slower than it did a year earlier.
But Labor Mayor Jerome Laxale said this was because of a shortage of town planners across Sydney.
“There was a lot of uncertainty with staff around the failed council amalgamation process, and we lost a lot of planning staff,” he said.
“This explains why our DA approvals times went up. We’re actually still recruiting to fill planning positions.”
The top performer was Wollondilly, which processed its DAs in just 29 days.
“I’m very proud of that (result) — you can see (my) council is working really hard,” Wollondilly Mayor Judy Hannan said.
The fresh data comes as mayors — both Labor and Liberal — spit the dummy over the government’s new independent planning panels, which come into effect on Thursday.
The Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels (IHAPs) will make decisions on developments valued at between $5 million and $30 million, taking it out of councillors’ hands to reduce the risk of corruption.
The four-member panels will include three government appointments, including the chair, and one community representative.
Randwick Mayor Lindsay Shurey said the majority of councils were being punished “because of a few bad apples”.
“There has been no training (yet) for our community representative and it looks like everything is on hold for the month of March,” Cr Shurey said.
Woollahra Liberal Mayor Peter Cavanagh said the IHAP change was a “big loss for community consultation”.
“The IHAP commissioners are looking at holding meetings at 4pm, which is not convenient for most people who are accustomed to the council meetings being in the evening,” he said.
“This planning change is not in the best interests of local residents, and it’s going to keep councillors completely out of the picture.”
Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said IHAPs would guard against corruption and lead to better local planning decisions.
“It is essential the government has a transparent and accountable process in place when assessing DAs of significant value, when there is a conflict of interest for the council or developer, or when they are of a sensitive nature,” he said.
“By making IHAPs mandatory, local councils will be able to focus on providing community services, strategic plans and development controls for their local area.”
DA LEADERBOARD (average approval times)
1. Wollondilly (29 days)
2. Camden, Campbelltown, Hawkesbury (39 days)
3. Canterbury-Bankstown (42 days)
4. Northern Beaches, Randwick, Waverley (52 days)
5. North Sydney (57 days)
6. The Hills (62 days)
7. Bayside (64 days)
8. Hornsby (65 days)
9. Parramatta (76 days)
10. City of Sydney, Ku-ring-gai, Mosman (78 days)
11. Inner West, Penrith (79 days)
12. Blue Mountains (85 days)
13. Ryde (89 days)
14. Willoughby (90 days)
15. Woollahra (112 days)
16. Cumberland (125 days)
* Fairfield (25 days), Blacktown (39), Liverpool (47), Lane Cove (50)
Note: Council performance is based on the average number of days it took for approving DAs in 2016/17. * Fairfield, Blacktown, Liverpool and Lane Cove Council’s data is for 2015-16.
