Building boom for staff

Council employs more planners to deal with influx

A LATE development rush has forced Cairns Regional Council to take on temporary planning staff to deal with a pending construction onslaught.

The city’s two-speed economy hit overdrive during the past 18 months with the construction and housing industry burning rubber in the fast lane.

A slight dip was finally starting to play out – dwelling approvals down 15 per cent year-on-year to 52 in August – but new figures show a re surgence is coming.

The council received 58 applications in August but only made decisions on 46 of them.

Officers also received 37 pre-lodgement requests – up 32 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Planning and environment interim general manager Martin Garred said full-time staff were struggling to keep up with the spike.

“In particular, what we saw … in that period of July was a significant increase in the number of pre-lodgement inquiries,” he said.

“I think the development sector has been one of those industries that has been positively impacted by Covid.

“From a workload perspective, that is causing a number of issues within the planning team.

“We are currently implementing some temporary staffing increases to deal with the number of applications going through the system, to ensure we’re continuing to provide timely advice to customers.”

The council has also pushed through multiple policy amendments this week – most notably a significant increase in the cost of impact-assessable development applications that trigger a complicated public consultation process.

Impact assessment was previously charged at the same rate as code-assessable applications despite the added workload they entailed.

Boundary realignments were previously charged a flat rate of $1088.40. They will now be charged at $1250 for code-assessable works, or $2500 for impact assessment.

Similarly, applications to reconfigure a lot will cost the same amount compared to a $1297.30 flat rate that was formerly used.

It remains to be seen whether more expensive costs translate into a reduction in activity.

The department has had its fair share of staff problems beyond the current situation.

Former general manager Kelly Reaston quit in October last year, strategic planning and approvals manager Peter Boyd was forced out in March, and it is understood six more people resigned from the council’s regulatory services branch during the first two weeks of May.