Planning law changes cut council powers: COUNCILS could lose power over planning and building homes after new rules were announced by the State Government today. “It’s just another example of the State Government taking away the responsibilities of local government in order to reduce its relevance, as part of the overall council amalgamation plan,” Claremont Mayor Jock Barker said. The Government’s Planning Reform changes will allow unelected development assessment panels (DAPs) to decide on buildings worth $2 million to $10 million, and any single house that complies with R-Codes will not need a development application. Changes to the Metropolitan Region Scheme (MRS), which sets out roads, suburbs and shops across Perth, and councils’ town planning schemes will occur at the same time to allow for new projects to get concurrent approvals at Government and local levels. Developers will have an online system to ask for approvals and there will be undisclosed changes to WA’s model scheme text used by councils as a template to write their town planning schemes. A quarter of development applications are for homes worth more than $2 million in Nedlands, where Mayor Max Hipkins said more DAP approvals could prevent neighbours’ and councillors’ comments and cause the DAPs to be flooded with applications. “They’d need more funds because, with the current system, all the Department of Planning’s money was all going to finance the DAPs,” Mr Hipkins said. Planning Minister John Day could not be contacted but in a press release this morning said “(The reform) will be achieved by realigning and simplifying the statutory processes required to rezone land for housing and economic development at all stages of the planning process”. He cited how changing the MRS and a council’s planning scheme at the same time could avoid a three-year delay for a 2004-05 amendment that asked for 1000 houses in Forrestdale, and claimed that after reform doing the changes would take about a year. dlvr.it/6b7wTZ #NEWSANDVIEWSLocalNews (inMyCommunity) #perth #perthnews
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:32:49 +0000
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