Council moves to speed up approval

KINGBOROUGH Council’s general manager now has the power to approve development applications that receive fewer than three public objections as part of a plan to speed up the development process and ease staff workloads.

At last night’s council meeting, Kingborough councillors voted to amend their “delegated authority policy”, under the Land Use and Planning Approvals Act.

Previously, the policy stated that if an application received one public objection or the recommendation for refusal from council officers it had to go to a council meeting for approval.

However, the councillors last night amended the policy so general manager Gary Arnold can approve applications that receive fewer than three opposing submissions, bypassing the need for councillors to approve simple projects.

Previously Mr Arnold could only approve projects if no objections were received.

The change means applications will only proceed to a meeting if the council receives three or more objections or a recommendation for refusal.

The reasons were concern around staff workloads and a push for faster approvals.

In the past year, 55 applications proceeded to a council meeting due to objections or refusal recommendations. Of these, 26 received one objection and 12 received two.

Councillor Dean Winter said the change brought Kingborough into line with other greater Hobart councils.

“It takes pressure off our planning staff who have been dealing with a massive increase in applications this calendar year,” Cr Winter said.