Substantial improvement in planning application processing times
05 July 2018
Tweed better than State averages across most application types
Determination times for development applications (DAs) at Tweed Shire Council dropped markedly in 2017/18, despite an increase in numbers of applications and other complicating factors. The NSW State Government requires annual performance reporting (each financial year) for all Councils on their determination times for the full range of development and certification applications.
Last financial year, Council achieved a substantial reduction in the determination times of its main applications, as compared against the 2016/17 results, and as measured against State averages.
In 2017/18, 1,028 DAs were determined (1,040 DAs received). This compares to 872 DAs determined in 2016/17, with 858 received.
DA determination times have improved year on year, with a DA in 2017/18 taking an average of 58 days to determine, compared to 69 days the previous year. This compares well to the State average of 71 days to determine a DA.
The average determination time for single dwelling DAs (including house additions) was 37 days, well within the NSW Premier’s Priority performance goal for faster housing approvals (90 per cent of housing approvals within 40 days).
Council’s Director Planning and Regulation, Vince Connell, said the results were particularly pleasing given a particularly busy and complicated year for Council’s planners and building surveyors.
“The results show a major reduction in application turnaround times, despite the fact we received and determined about 150 more development applications compared to 2016/17,” Mr Connell said.
“NSW councils have also had to adapt its planning systems to a constant roll out of major reforms to the NSW Planning system over the last 12 months, including the commencement of a modified Planning Act, new biodiversity and coastal planning legislation, and emerging Aboriginal Cultural Heritage policy and legislation.
“Locally, we were also contending with additional staff resourcing demands of an unprecedented number of Land and Environment Court appeals and compliance actions. It should be pointed out that almost 98 per cent of the application determinations are done under delegated authority by Council officers.”
“The remaining applications were determined by Council, the Land and Environment Court and the Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) and took significantly longer, impacting on the average results. For example, the average determination times for DAs assessed by the elected Council and the JRPP were 163 days and 193 days respectively.”
Meanwhile, complying development applications took an average of 11 days to process in 2017/18, the same as the previous year and well ahead of the State average of 18 days. While the time taken to determine Section 96 (modification of existing DAs) applications improved from 67 days in 2016/17 to 61 days in 2017/18, this was slower than the State average of 51 days.
“The section 96 result was impacted by the modification of three older consents for the existing caravan park at Barneys Point with determination times of 603 days for each application for the same proposal. Without these three applications, the overall result would have been an average determination time of 50 days, below the State average,” Mr Connell said.
The main factors contributing to the improved processing times were:
• the successful implementation of new electronic lodgement systems;
• effective monitoring of internal referral between different technical units of Council;
• streamlining administration systems and multiskilling more staff in processing applications;
• senior management making earlier calls on problematic applications;
• a continuing focus on thorough and accurate pre-lodgement advice and checking by technical officers;
• and the appointment of two full-time town planners to assess Building Unit DAs (new single dwellings and additions).