Story by Echonetdaily
Read Echonetdaily’s full story here
THE NUMBER of development applications (DAs) that Council assess – be that lopping a tree, a house or a large development – has doubled in the past year according to staff.
Responding to claims of long processing times by former Greens councillor Tom Tabart (see Echonetdaily’s story), Sustainable Environment and Economy director Shannon Burt says, ‘Over the last 12 months, DAs received by Council have increased to around 100 per month (where historically they have been around 50) and many of these continue to be for significant/complex developments.’
‘As stated below on average the current determination time for a development application is around 52 days. However, this can vary depending on the nature of development proposed, the application detail submitted and the determination authority.
‘Notwithstanding the above, in an effort to improve our customer service, and further reduce DA processing times, a lot of work in re-organising DA support staff (admin support for the planners) has occurred to streamline many of the DA administrative and assessment referral and determination processes through automation and online capability.
‘We also introduced last year (for the first time) three tiers of customer support for planning matters and development applications including a routine pre-lodgement service, formal meeting with technical staff, and also a development assessment panel for more complicated proposals (www.byron.nsw.gov.au/publications/development-fact-sheet-development-support-services).