20 September 2010
The NSW Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, and his key senior executives have fronted up for his annual question and answer session before the “estimates” committee in Parliament.
State infrastructure contributions
The Department of Planning’s Deputy Director-General, Ian Reynolds, told the committee that the state infrastructure contribution revenue, in growth centres, is about (in cash) $1.2 million and $3.8 to $3.9 million has been paid as works in kind (offsetting against the levy) and there is a bit over $40 million worth of works being undertaken, which developers propose to offset against their future levies.
Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority
With regard to the progress on the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority announced by the Premier earlier in the year, Tony Kelly had this to say:
“We are working our way through to finalising that proposition,” he said.
“Obviously, what we are planning to do there is to try to accelerate the provision of housing in Sydney, particularly around those transport nodes.
“We have to make some significant changes to where people live near those transport nodes.
“The Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority will be charged with trying to make sure that we provide additional accommodation in those areas that are close to transport nodes, near railway stations, bus areas or transport routes.
“We are working through the issues. This is going to be a significant development for Sydney. We want to make sure that we get it right. We are not that far away from concluding it.
Mr Kelly said there will be no special powers for the Authority to deal with strata titled properties.
Mr Kelly said that whether or not there were broader compulsory acquisition powers for the new Authority would “depend on what legislation we bring forward”.
“The whole purpose of this is to try to coordinate future development in an area,” Mr Kelly said.
“It is not to go out there and, as has been suggested, to compulsorily acquire land and just hand it over to developers.
“That is not the aim. It is to try to get some areas of Sydney close, as I said before, to those transport modes and to try to assist in getting the rejuvenation and the redevelopment of those areas.
“To a large degree it is going to be done by coordination. I am not sure. You certainly would not rule out that you would not purchase land to assist in that coordination, but it is certainly not the intention to go out there and wholesale compulsorily acquire land, certainly not to hand it over.”
Joint regional planning panels
In terms of the joint regional planning panels (JRPPs), Director-General of the Department of Planning, Sam Haddad said that there were certain categories of development that would be returned back to the council for more timely and efficient processing.
“We are advising the Government, the Minister, to give back to councils, decision-making for a range of developments that have been done through the JRPPs,” Mr Haddad said.
“For example, certain types of designated developments – developments that do not attract submissions opposing the development and can be dealt with without necessarily going through a full JRPP but can be dealt with by council officers and through that assessment process.
“Developments in certain areas where we have completed strategic planning and we have the controls agreed to.
“There is no reason why if the assessment follows that control it cannot be determined accordingly.
“These are the types of developments we are putting together and we are going to put a submission to the Minister shortly for him to delegate back those powers to the individual councils.”
A full transcript of the estimates hearing is here.
