2014-09-16 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                             16 September 2014


•    Assessable development (previously being code, compliance and impact assessment)
     - development approval required and is divided into ‘standard assessment’ and ‘merit
     assessment’.
•    Prohibited development as prescribed by Regulation.
‘Exemption certificates’ will also be available for some assessable development, which may
state that a development approval is not required for such assessable development. An
exemption certification may only be given under defined circumstances such as where the
effects of the development are minor or inconsequential, the circumstances under which a
Planning Scheme makes a development assessable no longer applies or the development
was made assessable in error.
The Bill implies that the consent of the land owner is required for Material Change of Use,
Reconfiguring a Lot and for Prescribed Tidal Works applications. However, assessment
managers will have the option to accept an application as being properly made even if it is
not accompanied by the consent of the owner. In this instance, the clock will stop on the
decision unless it is refused or conditioned for owners consent before development starts.
Assessment Benchmarks
Assessment benchmarks are the matters, set out in a Planning Scheme or a Regulation, that
a development application must be assessed against. Assessment benchmarks that cannot
be changed by a Planning Scheme may be identified in a Regulation.
Standard Assessment
Code assessment is proposed to be renamed ‘standard assessment’, combined with
compliance assessment and reformulated according to the original intent of the IPA, in that
there will be a presumption in favour of approval for compliant development. Like code
assessment, standard assessment will not require public notification and will not give rise to
third party appeals to the court.
Where a Planning Scheme prescribes standard assessment, the application can only be
assessed against the assessment benchmarks. This is similar to code assessment
currently. The application must also be assessed against any matters that are prescribed by
Regulation. To the extent that development complies with the assessment benchmarks, it
must be approved. It can only be refused if it does not comply and compliance cannot be
achieved by imposing lawful conditions. This reverts to the way in which the IPA originally
intended code assessment to operate.
For standard assessment applications, the Bill proposes that local governments may identify
and keep a list of other entities (private consultants) to be the assessment manager for the
development or an aspect of development. Where an applicant makes a development to the
other entity, the other entity may then process and decide the application as the assessment
manager, with a requirement to keep the local government informed (i.e. sent a copy of the
Decision Notice).
Merit Assessment
The new equivalent of impact assessment is proposed to be called ‘merit assessment’.
Merit assessment may require public notification if provided for in a Planning Scheme or
Regulation, and may give rise to third party appeals if provided for in the Planning Scheme.
In this way, public notification and appeal rights will be decoupled. They will be linked in
respect of a particular development if both public notification and a third party appeal right
are provided for under a Planning Scheme.




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