2016-12-12 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                                  12 DECEMBER 2016


5                        DRAFT DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT RULES FOR NEW PLANNING ACT
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                               Manager, Planning & Environment, Kerri Coyle
                                     Planning & Infrastructure Department

Index                                ECM/ Subject/ Planning Instruments/ State Planning

Attachments                          1.   Flow Chart of Application Process

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.


RECOMMENDATION
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.



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