Deputy Mayor Doug Eaton raised the issue of deemed refusals at day three of the Local Government conference in Tamworth.
Cr Eaton asked the head of the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure if the dept was thinking about extending the time limit for deemed refusals.
Developers can use deemed refusals as a way of fastracking their development applications which have been sitting with council for more than a certain number of days.
Cr Eaton said assessment times were quite bad at Council at the moment and some developers were taking the deemed refusal route, going to the Land and Environment Court (LEC) for a decision.
He said that meant the council was spending time working with the LEC, making assessment times even harder to reduce.
Dept Secretary Kiersten Fishburn said there were varying opinions on the time line for deemed refusals and that while the decision was one for the Minister she would be happy to discuss the issue with Cr Eaton.
“I would be happy to hear your experiences,” she said.
Ms Fishburn was taking questions after giving an overview of the department’s work, including the newly announced Housing Delivery Authority.
The Department is the home of the new three-person planning authority given responsibility for housing developments over $60M in the Sydney region and over $30 million in rural and regional areas.
Premier Chris Minns announced the new Authority last week.
The conference condemned it as one of its first decisions, saying it will bypass local councils and communities on large housing developments.
“The housing crisis is multifaceted and requires all three spheres of government working together,” LGNSW President Cr Darriea Turley said.
“The local government sector is already doing our part and delegates to our conference are keen to work with State Government for further reform.
“What we don’t need though is for councils and communities to be pushed aside and excluded from the process in a move that will only lead to inappropriate overdevelopment and increased profits for developers,” Cr Turley said.
“The announcement adds more uncertainty to the planning system and will further delay actual construction of housing on already approved sites.
“Why would developers build under the many approvals that already exist, when the NSW Government is effectively encouraging them to lodge new applications that exceed local planning controls, and where they can make windfall profits from spot rezoning?
“We call on the Minns government to abandon plans for this undemocratic body and to work with us and with our communities,” Cr Turley said.
Ms Fishburn said the authority was optional for developers.
They would be able to apply through expressions of interest and, if accepted, they would go into the normal State Significant Development process which included community consultation.