2016-12-15 Ordinary Meeting Minutes

ORDINARY MEETING MINUTES                                                    15 DECEMBER 2016


5   DRAFT DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT RULES FOR NEW PLANNING ACT
    That Council note the report by the Manager, Planning & Environment to the General
    Committee Meeting dated 12 December 2016 and request the Chief Executive Officer make
    a submission to the State government on the draft Development Assessment Rules for the
    Planning Act 2016 seeking that:
    1.   The assessment time frames of the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 be maintained. The
         time frames are proposed to be generally halved under the proposed Development
         Assessment Rules and have the potential to significantly impact on Council resources
         and achieving good planning outcomes for Noosa. The proposed shortened time
         frames will not allow time to undertake a thorough assessment of development
         proposals and consult appropriately with the community without additional resources
         to Council’s Development Assessment team. Additional resources would need to be
         funded by raising fees and charges for development applications, increasing costs for
         developers.
    2.   The Development Assessment Rules maintain and extend the time frame for applicants
         to be able to revive a development application where it lapses. This ability is not
         consistent with the identified intention for the development process to be ‘an applicant
         driven process’, and is likely to create administrative problems for councils and lead to
         significant confusion for the community, particularly submitters.
    3.   The opt-out step for information requests be deleted from the Development
         Assessment Rules. The ability to opt-out of an information request in the Development
         Assessment Rules is likely to add significant complexity to the development
         assessment process without adding value as an applicant currently has multiple
         options in regard to giving a response to a request for further information. It is critical
         that councils and state agencies retain the ability to raise issues and identify further
         information that is required in order to fully understand and assess development
         proposals.
    4.   Applicants be responsible for notifying all relevant entities of a change to the
         development application given the identified intention for the development process to
         be ‘an applicant driven process. S25.1 of the proposed Development Assessment
         Rules requires Councils to give a copy of a notice of change to a development
         application to the relevant referral agencies and advise on the effect of the change on
         the development process.’
    5.   Applicants be required to give notice of commencement of the public notification period
         to assessment managers, given Council is responsible for ensuring that application
         material is available for the community to review and determine whether submissions
         are properly made S17.4 of the proposed Development Assessment Rules states that
         ‘the applicant may give notice to the assessment manager of the intended start date of
         public notification’ and does not make this step mandatory.



6   ENDORSEMENT OF BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENT REPORT
    That Council note the report by the Principal Strategic Planner to the General Committee
    Meeting dated 12 December 2016, and:
    A.   Endorse the Biodiversity Assessment Report provided at Attachment 1 for the purpose
         of informing the development of an Environment Strategy and supporting Biodiversity
         Conservation Plan other than for the following issues:




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