Given staffing pressures, legislative changes and government expectations, Kiama Council’s planning department is warning it will have to take a more pragmatic approach to DA processing in coming months to keep its planning powers.

The ongoing focus on timeframes and process is necessary to improve DA processing times, which continue to be outside of Ministerial expectations.

In the July-September quarter, of the 84 DAs that were determined, only a quarter were processed in the required 40 days. Ten per cent took longer than 180 days and just over half took more than 40 days.

“From my perspective it is about conveying to the community and applicants that the time that we take to assess DAs really matters,” says Council’s Director Environmental Services Jessica Rippon.

“Whilst there may be a desire from both applicants and the community to continue to negotiate and work through additional information, this approach can last for months and years. Our focus is on shortening the process by insisting on all the information being provided upon lodgement.”

The way the State’s Planning Portal [where all DAs are now lodged online] is set up, the clock doesn’t stop when requests are made, which is leading to unacceptable timeframes.

“We are also faced with an industry wide shortage of planners, with our current planning team at less than 50 per cent capacity,” says Ms Rippon.

“This is creating more pressure internally to be able to process applications and we are often faced with applications that require us to seek more information, which is a significant resource burden for our team.”

Council's Director Environmental Planning Jessica Rippon with Manager Strategic Planning Edward Paterson

She says Kiama Council will be taking a more stringent approach to DA processing in coming months to reduce timeframes, including not accepting applications that are not of the quality required, are missing information, or don’t have the necessary approvals from other agencies.

“This is the approach that many other councils take and we are no different. It is about ensuring that the applications we receive are complete applications with detailed information, as this allows us to then undertake the assessment as quickly as possible,” says Ms Rippon.

“Whilst it is important to achieve good outcomes we also need to focus on timeframes.

“If we are continually seen as being too slow, there is a risk that the Minister will remove our planning powers and this will reduce the input the community has with the planning process.”

Despite efforts made so far to reduce timeframes and reduce the number of older applications in the system, timeframes are still too high.

“The biggest issue we are still facing is the quality of applications, and this is something we are going to be working on with our clients,” says Manager Strategic Planning, Edward Paterson.

“In August 48 applications were submitted, and in 80 per cent of the cases we had to go back and say we need the information requested on our checklist. This is slowing down the process and is frustrating for all involved.”

He’s looking forward to the State making changes to the Planning Portal in the next few months that will make it possible to mandate documents that need to be submitted so the application can’t be lodged without them.

These timeframe improvements are coinciding with continued changes in the State planning processes, including but not limited to the introduction of standard conditions of consent.

“The State Government is creating standard conditions of consent from June 2023,” says Director Environmental Services, Jessica Rippon.

“Councils will have six months to implement these changes into our consents. In my view this is a welcome change and will assist in providing applicants with more consistent conditions, regardless of where they lodge their applications.”

As it is possible for councils to add their own bespoke conditions, staff are also in the process of assessing past conditions against the standard conditions already released for dwellings and sheds, to see if there is anything LGA specific that needs to also be included.

Other work is happening behind the scenes, with the help of grant funding, to automate Council’s systems in with the State Planning Portal, where all DAs must now be lodged.

As part of this process, consents and plans will become publicly available on the DA Tracker, something precincts have been lobbying for over time.

“An industry forum will be held before the end of the year to discuss these changes directly with customers and to hear from the industry about how we can work more closely together to improve both the experience and timeframes being achieved,” says Ms Rippon.

“We want to explain what is expected and work to improve the quality of applications received. It is also important to outline our role, which is assessment of what is provided to us. Having quality information and clear requirements from Council assists everyone in the process.”