Development application time frames: How fast are the Macarthur region’s councils?
THE Macarthur region’s councils have streamlined their approvals process for mum-and-dad developers. See how Campbelltown, Camden and Wollondilly rate compared to other councils across Sydney in our special report.
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MACARTHUR’S “mum and dad” developers are taking advantage of the fastest development application turnover times in Greater Sydney as the State Government rolls out its new compulsory independent hearing and assessment panels (IHAPs).
Wollondilly Council staff are turning all of its development applications (DAs) over in 29 days on average at a time when the council looks to deliver an average of 2,657 dwellings a year to 79,631 by 2036.
Campbelltown and Camden, together with Hawkesbury Council, round off the Sydney top five, last year approving DAs in a median determination time of 39 days.
Cumberland — formed from the merger of parts of Auburn, Parramatta (Woodville ward) and Holroyd councils — is last at 125 days.
“I’m very proud of that (result) — you can see council is working really hard,” Wollondilly mayor Judy Hannan said.
She said pre-DA meetings and working with applicants were key to achieving these approval results.“Wilton will be the eighth-largest town in NSW,” Cr Hannan added.
“We’re making ourselves as ready as we can for that.
“I’m hoping as we get things like e-lodgement, hopefully those times will decrease further.”
Despite their results, all of the councils in Greater Sydney and Wollongong lose the power to make decisions on any DAs valued over $5 million from March 1, after NSW Planning and Housing Minister, Anthony Roberts, introduced legislation “to end the dodgy and dirty backroom deals that have gone on for far too long inside local councils”.
IHAPs, consisting of three experts approved by the minister for planning and one council-appointed community member, will decide on all DAs above $5 million.
And councillors will make no DA decisions, even though statewide they made only about two per cent until now.
Mayor Hannon worried the introduction of IHAPs would impose pressures on existing services and cause delays in the approval process. “We’ll work with our IHAPS to get the best result for our community but last (week) we decided to ask the government to reconsider,” she said, adding “These people are not elected by our local community at the end of the day.”
Campbelltown Mayor George Brticevic said the council would have to adapt to working with IHAP by taking a strategic approach to planning and setting out clear boundaries for what would be acceptable in the area.
The Property Council of Australia’s NSW executive director, Jane Fitzgerald, said:
“Time is cost, cost that gets added to the ledger and someone has to pay at the end of the day.” Either developers walk away from projects considered “too costly or too hard”, or they pass on the costs to the new home buyers, she said.
Cr Hannon said ratepayers would foot the annual bill of operating an IHAP, estimated by the government as around $100,000.
“I think it will be more likely $200,000,” she predicted. “I think what could we do for our community with that. We could have a skate park, all sorts of different facilities.”
The NSW Department of Planning’s spokesman said: “Councils may find these costs are offset through savings on legal costs from reviews and appeals.”
Gary White, the state’s chief planner, reasoned there is no reason for local councillors to get “cornered and lampooned” over individual developments.
Mr White, who helped lift southeast Queensland city Ipswich out of the doldrums before becoming the NSW Chief Planner in late 2015, said: “One of the things about IHAPs is to say to planning authorities, ‘look, concentrate on telling that story of what you want to see happen in your backyard; tell the strategic story and allow the technical side of the assessment to be assessed by experts and individuals’.”
Ms Fitzgerald, who is a former chief executive officer of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, agrees with the government that the IHAPs will free local councils to focus its efforts on strategic leadership.
“The former planning minister Rob Stokes would say often, and I think he’s right, that what most people want, like the average punter, wants to know is: what the rules are in relation to planning, whose applying the rules, and that the decisions are going to be taken in accordance with those rules in a reasonably transparent and fair way,” she said.
“So if their elected councillors set the rules, the experts (IHAP members) make the decisions, and there’s no brown paper bags full of money that cause problems in that process, and the process is fair and transparent, that’s a great conceptual framework. Now, having said all of that, resourcing is quite a separate issue.”
But John McFadden, who is one of 218 experts in a pool to sit on the new IHAPs, said there would be “teething problems” with the new IHAPs. He said they were told at a briefing last week that community representatives were being brought in from outside some local government areas because of the lack of applicants.
Mayor Brticevic said: “Council will have to become more like a board of directors in terms of developing our development control plans and local environment plan (LEP) so that when things go to IHAP they will tick our boxes. Lots of work goes into something like developing our LEP so if we get that right then they will tick the right boxes.”
His council looks to deliver an average of 2,020 dwellings a year to 96,394 by 2036.
Camden mayor Lara Symkowiak was unavailable for comment but her council’s spokeswoman said: “As one of the fastest-growing local government areas in Australia, the volume of development applications continue to grow — with 2059 received in 2017, compared to 1741 in 2016.”
She said in the past two years Camden Council had approved almost 90 per cent of DAs.
“The majority of housing in the Camden area is approved through complying development certificates, which helps to streamline the approvals process,” she explained.
The Office of Local Government received no complaints about either Campbelltown or Camden Councils about the handling of a DA in 2016-17, and just one of the 180 complaints related to Wollondilly Council.
The NSW Ombudsman’s 2016/17 annual report says council customer service continues to be the most-complained about issue across NSW (23.2 per cent), followed by development (14.2 per cent, or 440 complaints) including decisions on DAs and other development-related decisions.
‘How much for a shed?’
CURRANS Hill resident of 20 years Brad Grove is still reeling after being told building a shed — “a $15,000 job” — would cost him between $2000 and $4000 “just in council fees”.
“The amount of regulations that I have been told by builders giving quotes is ridiculous,” Mr Grove, who is wheelchair-bound, told the Macarthur Chronicle, before he began listing the kind of information the council sought from him.
“Height, drainage, distance from fence, only a certain amount of the property can be developed et cetera. (Camden) Council wants a full blown drawing!
“I still want to do it, but I’d like to know where my money is going.”
He said he was initially quoted $1500 to cover the cost of a draftsman, plus between $2000 and $4000 for the DA and compliance certificate approvals. This was to build a $15,000 7-metre by 5-metre Colorbond shed. So he scaled it back to 4x4m but the shed still may cost him $8000 to erect, he’s been told.
“It’s because it’s considered a garage, that it’s not ‘exempt’. It’s a working studio,” he explained. A tradie by profession, he is wanting to start a home business.
But Camden Council’s spokeswoman said development application fees are mandated in the planning legislation and are not set by the council.
“Building certification services are competitive services available through council, or the private sector,” she said. “Council carefully considers how these fees are set and ensure proposed fees are reviewed and benchmarked against industry standards every year as part of the budget process.”
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.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
A REGIONWIDE planning strategy capable of producing an extra 20,750 dwellings in the Macarthur region by 2021-22 has seen Stockland and Lendlease continue to work closely with Campbelltown Council on development applications to unlock land for future housing.
Stockland’s 6 Star Green Star rated Willowdale community in Denham Court will in time contain over 3000 dwellings including retirement living, a proposed new primary school, a Coles supermarket, 12 specialty stores, wetlands and boardwalks.
Richard Rhydderch, the Stockland general manager for residential communities, said Willowdale had affordable housing options and its retail offerings, including a new medical centre, would benefit the entire area by providing vital amenities and creating jobs.
Lendlease is meantime in the early stages of planning for a new master planned residential community at Gilead, beside the Nepean River.
Willowdale Park Precinct 4 flyover
Lendlease general manager NSW/ACT communities, Arthur Ilias, said Gilead would support the demand for new housing within the region while protecting environmentally-sensitive land and bushland corridors. The department of planning approved the rezoning of Gilead in September 2017.
Mr Ilias said Lendlease continues to work with the three tiers of government to progress the necessary environmental and planning approvals.
According to .id the population experts, Campbelltown City’s population will boom from 167,468 in 2018 to 275,778 in 2036. The greatest increase in development of new dwellings is predicted in rural residential with 10,992 new homes forecast — a massive 1,448.3 per cent increase — followed by the suburbs of Campbelltown and Glenfield with 7,901 and 4,900 new homes, respectively.
Camden’s population will increase from 88,258 in 2017 to 226,604 in 2036, representing a still sizeable 156.75 per cent increase. Its biggest boom area will be Marylands, expected to record a 69,755.92 per cent population rise from 27 in 2017 to 19,003 by 2036.
The planning department said Sydney would need about 725,000 additional homes over the next 20 years to accommodate a growing and ageing population and predicted Camden in Sydney’s south west growth area as the fourth-largest supplier of Sydney housing to 2021-22 with 12,350 new homes, Campbelltown as twelfth with 7000, and Parramatta as first with 22,250.
The Oran Park Precinct will gain 7,397 new homes to 2036. The suburb earmarked for a future rail station will eventually have new schools, 12 playgrounds, parks and about 18ha of employment land.
Chris Johnson of the Urban Taskforce, a group representing property developers, said building apartments was “the best way to accommodate growth. And a lot of people, especially the younger generation, are keen about a cosmopolitan, buzzy style of inner-city living”.
He said there’s a big misunderstanding that big projects don’t add value to an area. “(They) contribute quite a lot of funding back to the very infrastructure that people say is needed,” Mr Johnson, a former NSW Government architect building master plans for iconic structures such as Sydney Olympic Park, said.
Camden Council’s spokeswoman said the council enters into voluntary planning agreements with developers to deliver necessary infrastructure for the community. “One such project is the Oran Park Library and Community Centre,” she said.
Campbelltown Council received $1.2 million in capital contributions in 2016-17 including money from developers and community sources towards council’s capital works program.
Lendlease is currently working with Roads and Maritime Services, department of planning and Campbelltown Council on an upgrade for Appin Rd, committing $45 million to the project.
Mr Ilias said Lendlease also looked at investing in facilities at Gilead such as a community centre, parks and sporting fields.
“Our work with (Campbelltown) council builds on Lendlease’s track record in the Macarthur region delivering housing and quality amenity, such as the first housing estate in the region, Sherwood Hills Estate at Bradbury, and Macarthur Square shopping centre,” he said.
Stockland runs free fitness group training in Willowdale for its residents and nearby locals, yoga, boxing and crossfit classes. It also hosts free outdoor movie nights, cultural festivals, and kids’ circus training. They have even opened a park for “man’s best friend”, called Dogwood Park.
Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 70,000 home approvals were granted in NSW in 2017, and Western Sydney remains the epicentre of the state’s housing construction with 27,540 new homes approved in the year to November 2017.
“NSW is the number one state in the nation for housing approvals and continues to far exceed the Premier’s Priority Housing Target of 50,000 approvals per year which improves housing supply and helps to support housing affordability,” Housing Minister Anthony Roberts said.
The Greater Sydney Commission says the commission will continue to work closely with the Department of Planning and councils to establish six- to 10-year housing targets to create long-term housing supply.
“We will continue to review and improve our processes to ensure we maintain our high standard of service and meet the NSW State Government’s target in 2019,” Camden Council’s spokeswoman said.
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS
Click here for the State Government’s ‘5 stages to faster, more efficient assessments’
Local government (council)
■ Minor, low-impact home, shop or business improvement projects, known as “exempt development” or “complying development”, don’t require planning or building approval. Other developments need consent and a form must be lodged with your local council, alongside a development application.
■ City planning officers determine the majority of DAs under delegated authority of council.
■ Across NSW, council staff currently make about 69 per cent of all DA and complying development certificate determinations. Councillors were making about two per cent of the DA decisions but from March 1 they will make none.
■ The fees for DAs are mandated under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000, and range from $110 for developments up to $5,000 to $15,875 for developments over $10 million (plus an extra $1.19 for each $1,000 or part of $1,000 by which the estimated cost exceeds $10 million).
■ Many NSW councils offer an online application tracking service.
■ Complaints about the general administrative conduct of councils, councillors and council staff can be made to the Office of Local Governmentor the NSW Ombudsman, while complaints about alleged corrupt conduct of councillors or council staff can be made to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel
■ DAs with a dollar value of over $5 million but under $30 million to go before a mandatory Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel, known as an IHAP, from March 1.
■ IHAPS also deal with:
● DAs where the applicant or owner is the council, a councillor, councillor’s family member, council staff member, or a state or federal MP;
● DAs that get 10 or more objections;
● DAs accompanied by a voluntary planning agreement;
● DAs seeking to depart by more than 10 per cent from a development standard; and
● applications associated with a higher risk of corruption (that is, residential flat buildings assessed under SEPP 65 and demolition of heritage items).
■ All meetings are open to the public and will be recorded and made publicly available.
■ All IHAPs have: a chair approved by the minister for planning with expertise in law or government and public administration (casting vote), two independent experts chosen by the local council from a pool approved by the minister, and one council-appointed community member who represents the council ward in which the development is to take place.
Sydney Planning Panels
■ Five independent Sydney Planning Panels make decisions about significant
development proposals in their region.
■ Currently, the projects they assess are valued over $20 million but from March 1 that threshold will be increased to $30 million.
■ The panels also act as the relevant planning authority in some decisions when directed by the Minister for Planning or the Greater Sydney Commission, undertake rezoning reviews, and provide advice on planning and development matters when requested.
■ New planning panel chairs are: Carl Scully (Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel), Justin Doyle (Sydney Western City Planning Panel), Professor Helen Lochhead (Sydney South Planning Panel), and Peter Debnam (Sydney North Planning Panel). The new chair of the Sydney Central Planning Panel is in the final stages of appointment.
Timelapse: Oran Park residential community
