HOBART CITY’S SO-CALLED ‘DEVELOPMENT BLOCKERS’ TALLIED UP
A COUNCIL candidate has named the most “antidevelopment” aldermen on Hobart City Council.
Louise Elliot has painstakingly compiled a spreadsheet detailing the voting records of every councillor to see who has knocked back the most housing developments.
Ms Elliot, who is the head of the Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association, said the figures showed some “disturbing” but unsurprising trends.
“Helen Burnett and Mike Dutta are the biggest blockers by far. They’ve stopped about 200 homes which have been recommended for approval – 200 compliant homes,” Ms Elliot said. “They are going against a planning professional’s advice who says these houses comply, so why are their personal preferences trumping that in an environment where we need houses?”
She said the “queen blocker” at number one was Helen Burnett, followed closely by Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds at number two, then Mike Dutta.
Ms Elliot, who intends to run for council in the 2022 election, said she thought this “anti-development” mindset was to blame for skyrocketing house prices, rental costs and homelessness.
The councillors with the fewest number of no votes were Marti Zucco, Peter Sexton and Simon Behrakis.
Cr Burnett hit back at Ms Elliot’s development-at-all-costs mentality, saying it was simplistic and lacked nuance.
“I vote a particular way because I consider each application before me. There’s a lot more to planning than Ms Elliot makes it out to be,” Cr Burnett said.
“Some people take the view that if you don’t rubber stamp a development application regardless of whether it’s within the planning guidelines, the height guidelines, the heritage, the density, then you’re anti-development.”
Mike Dutta said the attacks on Helen Burnett and himself were “politically motivated”.
Cr Dutta said he stood by each of his decisions, saying he would be happy to debate Ms Elliot any time about the merits of each individual application.
“We exercise our own judgment and discretion for each development application,” Cr Dutta said.
“It’s not based on my feelings or party membership.”