OPINION: Development act fundamentally flawed

So why is yet another opinion piece being written about a development approval that has gone wrong? More Government Acts that have been ignored by people in positions of power and more trampling on the rights of citizens as a result? There are some key issues inherent in the political process that maintain the status quo and without understanding and challenging them we allow the process to continue unhindered; feeding the juggernaut that is the over-development of our living environment.

When I found out an apartment complex in the Woolloomooloo Heritage Conservation Area was proposed for the side and back of the building I have been living in for 11 years, demolishing and amalgamating two 90 year old buildings ‘important to NSW’s cultural history with important aesthetic characteristics and of local heritage significance’, it came as a big surprise as the development application (DA # D/2010/1267) had already been approved with conditions placed on the developer. Yet neither I nor the tenants in my building had been notified by Council – a clear breach of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

So I started digging around in the 1979 Act to read about what process Council must adhere to in making a decision as to whether to approve a DA or not. In effect the Act allows Council two options. Either a DA must be rejected outright (eg. in a ludicrous proposal where a developer wants to build a 20 storey building in a low rise area – but a developer isn’t likely to be stupid enough to propose this), or the only other option for Council when responding to a DA is to give approval but with conditions.

Once an approval is given with conditions the ball starts rolling and the process is less likely to be stopped. As far as the developer is concerned they have been given the green light. They start spending money (and lots of it) on ‘moulding’ their original DA and assessment plans required under the law. The Council still has a right later on to reject the DA if they are not ultimately happy, but the weight of the initiation of the development due to the money already having been spent plays heavily on Council’s perception of the DA.

If the developer is not happy with the Council’s decision there is always another card up their sleeve, to challenge Council’s decision in the Land and Environment Court, who are notoriously pro development and influenced by the developer’s big spending.

If the Council approves a DA and a third party wants to challenge the approval, they are looking at spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to appeal the Council’s decision in the Land and Environment Court.

Right from the word go this 1979 ACT is fundamentally flawed and weighted towards over-development, changing our living environment into a Hong Kong style city.

By Glenn Lockitch