The development process that happens in secret
How many residents of the Central Coast know what a Complying Development Certificate is?
The average resident probably couldn't care less until suddenly the bulldozers arrive next door and start "moonscaping" the site.
Then they might call the council who will direct them to the private "certifier" responsible, who in turn will politely but firmly explain that what he is doing is perfectly legal and could they please let him get on with his job and, no, they have no right to object.
A Complying Development Certificate allows developers to bypass the local council planning strategies and provisions, and neighbours' objections, because they are building a "complying development".
Unless you have a reasonable neighbour who has informed you in advance, the most warning you can expect, if you live on the Central Coast, is two days before construction starts.
Central Coast Council is the only council area in the Greater Sydney Area where 14 days' notice does not need to be given to neighbours and council.
We are second class citizens.
So what exactly is a "complying development"?
It is a development which complies with the blanket provisions of the relevant State Environmental Planning Policy determined by the State Government.
Its official aim is "to provide streamlined assessment processes for development that complies with specified development standards".
The standards bear no relationship to the local standards that would otherwise apply.
That might or might not be reasonable.
However, there are two major flaws - secrecy and lack of governance.
It seems the public are the enemy of "progress" and it's best to keep them completely out of the picture.
Information about Complying Development Certificates is more closely guarded than most people's credit card details.
They must be lodged via the NSW Planning Portal but the only information available to the public is the address of the development and its current status.
There are no plans or any description.
Of course, the certificates don't have to be issued by private certifiers.
They can be issued by the local council, in which case they are logged on the council's planning portal.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, they are hard to find and the number on the council portal is pitifully small anyway.
So then we come to lack of governance of private certifiers.
How closely are they being monitored?
This is illustrated in the recent case of the building site that got closed down at 46-48 Holden St, Gosford, in June of this year.
In that case there were five construction certificates issued by a private certifier.
The oldest of them was issued in 2021 and the most recent in February 2023.
The Building Commission NSW did good work in stopping construction on that occasion as they considered that if construction continued, it "could result in significant harm or loss to the occupiers or potential occupiers at the development".
High visibility cases like this are just the tip of the iceberg.
Who's policing the smaller stuff?
How closely are Complying Development Certificates, which are usually no larger than a single dwelling, being monitored?
This "need to know" mentality combined with low levels of governance is an ideal breeding ground for the "perfect storm" for things to go wrong before anyone realises.
I don't know about you, but this is the sort of treatment I would expect to be handed out by an authoritarian regime.
We don't have one of those, do we?
SOURCE:
Email, 21 Jul 2024
Frank Wiffen, Woy Woy