Council planning report cards signal directions for a better planning system in NSW

19 February 2012

The recent release of the extensive data base in the 2010-11, Local Development Performance Monitoring Report for NSW councils provides some directions for an improved planning system in the state, according to the Urban Taskforce Australia.

 

 

“Three clear trends towards improvement in the state planning system that come from this data are; the standardisation of planning instruments, the increase in the use of complying development and the time savings from Joint Regional Planning Panels.” says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. “This is reinforced by the release of a similar report card for Queensland’s planning system.”

 

 The report identifies the important role the JRPPs are undertaking for the states prosperity in approving $3.77 billion of development covering 262 projects with an average assessment time of 185 days. Our big worry is that the government has lifted the threshold from $10 million to $20 million for consideration by the JRPP and we believe that this will reduce the number of projects that could be determined more effectively.

 

“On standardisation across 152 councils it is pleasing to see that 67% of complying developments now use the states code SEPP, up from 42% last year. This demonstrates that consumers prefer a simple universal system over multiple versions of codes.

 

“Complying development applications are now over 18% which is up from last year but NSW is way behind Queenslands performance. A massive 80% of Queenslands applications were code assessable up from 68% the previous year. We really do need to learn from the effectiveness of the Queensland planning system.” says Mr Johnson

 

“The good news for NSW is that the Joint Regional Planning Panels are making a difference. Projects over $20 million have improved their assessment time from 317 days last year to 253 days this year and similar improvements have occurred between $5 and $20 million. Clearly the JRPP model is the way of the future but we still have a long way to go to match Queensland’s planning system.”

 

“Our councils still took on average 67 days to determine an application, while in Queensland the average determination time is 31 days.” Mr Johnson said “The two year old Sustainable Development Planning Act in Queensland illustrates just what improvements can come from a new act.”

 

The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.  

 

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