Residents to seek support for Planning Panel role
The Peninsula Residents' Association will write to the Minister of Planning Mr Paul Scully asking him to resist moves to weaken the role of the Central Coast Local Planning Panel.
The association will ask him not to agree to a Central Coast Council request to change the number of submissions that trigger a Planning Panel hearing about a development application
The Council recently decided to seek to raise the number from 10 to 20.
The association said moves to reduce the role of the Local Planning Panel would undermine long-term planning on the Central Coast and should be resisted.
It said arguments made at the Council meeting to increase the submission number misrepresented and under-valued the role of the Local Planning Panel.
The association said there was no evidence to suggest that there were large numbers of applications going before the planning panel, that they were about trivial matters or that they represented a substantial additional cost to council.
Nor was it true that submissions alone triggered the Panel's consideration of a development application.
The association said it was also untrue to suggest that the Planning Panel did not add value to the planning process.
The Association said that the Panel added to the integrity and robustness of the planning system, being the best possible way of achieving long-term community well-being.
"We are wanting a well-planned Peninsula," said Association secretary Ms Sally Wilson.
"In the three years the association has existed, we have noticed that Panel consideration of Peninsula applications has resulted in a substantial increase in the quality of development on the Peninsula.
"Prior to this, there had been no refusals of any planning applications for several years.
"Unregulated development is not in anyone's interest.
"WIth Panel consideration, several applications have been refused or have had conditions imposed - sometimes on the recommendation of council planners, sometimes by the Panel itself.
"More importantly, many more plans have been modified to respond to community concerns, making our area a better place to live.
"Some have been approved by the Panel but, later, the applicants themselves have resubmitted altered plans which have taken concerns raised in submissions into account.
"Increasingly, applicants are responding to and accommodating issues raised by community submissions."
Ms Wilson said the Peninsula faced two major issues: Housing affordability and urban heat.
"Most of the larger contentious developments on the Peninsula which attract submissions do nothing to address either of these issues, and often exacerbate them.
"They are often also not compliant with the provisions or espoused principles of the Council's planning scheme.
"The Local Planning Panel provides the opportunity for the community to be heard about the affect on neighbours' amenity (including solar access) and on the amenity of the neighbourhood generally (such as traffic, parking and shaded streetscapes and open space).
"These are not trivial.
"The oversight of the Local Planning Panel has served to lift the standard of assessment of these contentious applications.
"Where a 'variance' is recommended from planning provisions, the reasons for it are more often made clear.
"Where they are not, the Panel has sought clarification.
"In one example, the Planning Panel called on the Council to undertake a strategic planning review on the Peninsula to provide clearer direction and consistency.
"This would greatly benefit the community," said Ms Wilson
She said: "Councils are entrusted to implement a planning system which is of community benefit and that is fair and equitable to all.
"This includes a system of checks and balances, with transparency and community participation, that ensures community needs are well served into the future."
Where the planning provisions in the Council's Development Control Plan are regarded by council staff at their legal minimum as being discretionary and "guidelines only", it falls back to the Panel to ensure the guidelines are properly applied.
SOURCE:
Media release, 8 Dec 2024
Sally Wilson, Peninsula Residents Association