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Sartor to overhaul building approvals

THE Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, has promised to overhaul the development approval system as the building industry mounts a fresh assault on council powers reports Catharine Munro Urban Affairs Editor SMH June 14, 2007.

With local governments controlling $19 billion worth of construction last financial year through more than 100,000 development applications, Mr Sartor said their economic importance was too significant to ignore.

"Yes, we do want a new agenda for reform and we want that to be achieved over the next 12 to 18 months," he told a lobby group for residential developers at Parliament House yesterday.

Increasing the categories of building changes that do not need development applications - known as "exempt and comply" development - and stripping councillors of control over applications are among adjustments aimed at streamlining the system.

Mr Sartor revealed that the ALP had made a strategic decision to block him from campaigning on the issue at the last election because he was targeted by the Opposition over a planning overhaul in the last term.

"It wasn't felt appropriate that I come out with any great promises so I made no promises," he said. He started the fresh term with a tour of Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

A statistic that concerned him was that NSW councils processed twice as many development applications as Victorian councils. "Do we have too many development applications for small matters in NSW? Possibly … so we have to tackle that area, but … it is a difficult area," he said.

He invoked the possibility of "unused" but "effective" powers of intervention into council business after complaining that performance statistics supplied by local governments last year were "very patchy and not complete".

But with almost all development applications assessed by councils rather than the Department of Planning, councils could not be fully overridden.

Amid concern from the Local Government Association, developers' lobby groups have stepped up their campaign in recent weeks, aware that change is most likely in the first two years of a government's four-year term.

The NSW Urban Taskforce wants changes that will free up councillors to consider residential development applications. "It is the planning system itself that needs changes so that local councils can improve their performance," its chief executive officer, Terry Barnes, said.

He wants electronic application processing, independent councillors and greater use of the controversial system of employing private certifiers - albeit those chosen and paid by council rather than developers.

Despite revelations in the Herald this week of allegations surrounding the relationship between a developer and City of Canada Bay Council, most developers prefer to deal with the State Government for big projects.

The Urban Development Institute of Australia - which hosted yesterday's event - is promoting an event titled "All the Way with Part 3A", referring to the controversial increase in powers for the Department of Planning.

The Property Council of Australia claimed recently that NSW residents waited an extra 7 million days for local councils to process development applications.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sartor-to-overhaul-building-approvals/2007/06/13/1181414383810.html