Variations from the rules have been allowed in more than 100 development applications approved in Sutherland Shire in the last year.
Sutherland Shire Council has expressed “deep concern” at the situation and sent a strong message to staff that non-compliance with the local environmental plan (LEP) should occur only “in the most extreme circumstances”.
The move was a response to residents’ complaints of “overdevelopment” during record levels of building in the shire.
Under changes introduced by the state government early this year, councillors no longer have a say in development applications (DAs),
Decisions are made by council staff or the Sutherland Shire Local Planning Panel (previously IHAP), made up of appointed planning experts and community representative.
In the three months to June 30 this year, variations in building height, floor and landscaping space ratios and other controls were allowed in 28 cases.
In the preceding three quarters, variations numbered 17, 22 and 35.
Another council decision shone a light on the cost to ratepayers of the new planning panel.
A staff report said a panel was made up of a chair, two independent expert members and a community member, and each was remunerated by council.
“Council also funds the travel costs for panel members, a bus for site visits and catering for the meeting,” the report said.
“Meetings are held on a fortnightly basis with a meeting being estimated to cost in the vicinity of $6500-$7000.
“Council does not receive any additional fees for an application that must be determined by the SSLPP.
“Each application costs council approximately $1100 ‘out of pocket’ to determine, not including staff wages for the additional work involved.
“In June 2018, council had 686 pending development applications and 124 modification applications currently under consideration.
“These figures are record numbers for Sutherland Shire Council and have led to extended assessment times.”
The costs were revealed when a decision was made to ask the state government for council staff to handle a bigger proportion of DAs.
At present, the planning panel determines a wide range of DAs, including those where there may be a conflict of Interest, contentious cases and departure from development standards by more than 10 per cent.
The council asked for staff be the consent authority for DAs where there was a departure in the landscaping ratio of more than 10 per cent from the standard.
These matters accounted for 40 per cent of matters dealt with by the panel, a report said.
”Over 90 per cent of these relate to the landscaped area control and most were previously approved [by staff],” the report said.
“The applications involved are typically ‘mum and dad’ additions to homes, swimming pools, etc.”
