Council & Business
5 September, 2022
Officers given more planning application powers
Central Goldfields Shire planning officers have been given greater powers to approve or refuse planning applications in a bid to improve efficiency, despite one councillor voting against the motion. Council officers can now decide planning...
Central Goldfields Shire planning officers have been given greater powers to approve or refuse planning applications in a bid to improve efficiency, despite one councillor voting against the motion.
Council officers can now decide planning applications under delegation where there are three or fewer objections or when an application is to be refused in limited circumstances, including if the application is for a prohibited development or has been inactive for six months.
The change means planning permit applications that receive fewer than three objections will no longer be tabled at ordinary council meetings or be decided by elected representatives, unless the matter is specifically called in by councillors.
According to the report tabled to council at last week’s ordinary meeting, a mediation process has also been added for objectors to meet with applicants and resolve issues which councillor Geoff Lovett, in addition to the increased officer powers, said would streamline the planning process.
“This motion is a logical and sensible change to our current planning application processes,” he said.
“If this is voted in, it will see a streamline of our planning processes that will hopefully lead to faster resolutions of applications.
“Importantly, under our current processes we don’t have a formal mediation process and sometimes that’s very important.
“If this motion is carried through, it will see that introduced so that if there are any objections to the planning process, before it comes to council for resolution, we would get the objector and applicant together to talk and see if there are issues that can be resolved.”
Under the previous policies and processes, any planning application that received at least one objection or that was recommended for refusal had to be decided by councillors, which according to the report tabled at the meeting, led to some inefficient outcomes.
The report further states council consulted with neighbouring
councils including the City of Bendigo and Northern Grampians Shire, both of which have officer delegation for up to four objections.
Councillor Wayne Sproull said the changes were important in improving council’s efficiency and also outcomes for the community.
“This motion is about efficiency,” he said.
“Currently if any planning project is subject to an objection, as councillor Lovett said, council officers present a briefing to councillors and the matter is brought to an ordinary council meeting.
“This process can be slow and laborious and can have an affect on the timeframe the planning matter is decided in.”
The changes will be reviewed in 12 months’ time, according to the report, and Cr Sproull said importantly, councillors were still able to call applications before council meetings if they felt there was a need.
“Councillors will also have the option to call in any application should they feel that it should come before council,” he said.
“Planning applications with more than three objections will be dealt with as current practice and will not change and I personally think this is a good decision.”
The report tabled to council states that officers could decide planning applications under delegation where there is a limited level of community objection or concern. In many cases, such objections may not be entirely valid but instead be lacking substance; be of a frivolous, vexatious, or misconceived nature; or otherwise designed to frustrate an applicant.
Relevant planning applications could also proceed through the planning process more expediently, allowing council to better satisfy prescribed, statutory time frames, according to the report. This would be likely to have the flow on effect of enhancing council’s reputation by lowering the reported median days for applications being decided.
Councillor Gerard Murphy voted against the motion, arguing he was disturbed by the number of objections a planning application needed before it came to a council meeting.
“What disturbs me is delegates may only decide an application if three or fewer relevant objections have been received,” he said.
“I know we can call it in to a council planning hearing if we so wish but things do get through the cracks and we’ve seen that.
“I’m just concerned about the number of relevant objections being three — I think that’s a few too many and I’m going to vote against this because I think it should be less than that.
“The whole thing is good, but I don’t like the idea of three objectors.”