Tweed go slow angers developers
DEVELOPERS says they are putting the Tweed Shire in the too hard basket and taking their money elsewhere, fed up with bureaucratic roadblocks.
The Urban Development Institute of Australia says moves to invest in the Tweed Shire have become “problematic”.
However, the Tweed Shire Council say the problems have come from Queensland developers unaccustomed to planning laws in New South Wales.
The council took on seven developers in the Land and Environment Court last financial year, spending about $1 million on legal fees.
UDIA Gold Coast president Sean Sandford said developers dealing with the Tweed council had become frustrated.
“There is vast differences between the local authorities and the state,” he said.
“We have developments that have been approved on one level and we have authorities going out of their way to make things difficult.”
One developer told the Bulletin developers were often looking elsewhere or turning to the New South Wales Government for help.
The Tweed Shire is dominated by Greens, with mayor Katie Milne and deputy mayor Chris Cherry both members of the party. Independent Ron Cooper and Country Labor member Reece Byrnes also have a track record of voting against development.
Veteran councillor and Liberal Party member Warren Polglase said the shire was losing opportunities.
“We are struggling to get investment and it’s disappointing we can’t create these jobs,” he said. “We are so close to the Gold Coast and they (developers) are unable to get anything up.”
Cr Polglase said the region was struggling after this year’s floods and the council was turning away investment.
Tweed council planning and regulation director Vince Connell said the main developers in the shire were Queensland based and were used to operating under different regulations.
“The greatest conflicts that occur between Tweed Council and these development proponents are often attempting to reconcile the expectations of applying the assessment standards of the Queensland system to applications under the NSW system,” he said.
“Tweed council’s development controls and technical standards are no more stringent than what you would find in other regional NSW growth council areas.”
Mr Connell said the council processed 800-900 development applications a year.
He said the slight rise in cases before the Land and Environment Court complemented the increased number of development applications.
“In respect of advancing the redevelopment of the major development sites, there needs to be a greater recognition of the technical challenges and costs of providing new infrastructure, as well as streamlining the very complex NSW planning system,” Mr Connell said.
He said other challenges included keeping up with infrastructure needs without raising rates above the state-imposed cap.