Page 2618 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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The bill will introduce a new stage into the development assessment process to recognise the expanded role of the Territory Planning Authority. It will enable the authority to provide pre-decision advice on changes that the authority believes need to be made to an application to achieve good planning outcomes under the Territory Plan.
The bill will support a range of initiatives to give effect to the outcomes-focused planning system. It will enable the authority to consider all relevant matters when deciding a development application. New considerations will allow the assessment of the proposed development’s performance and merit, having regard to the scale, complexity and design of development proposals, and their context. This will direct attention to the performance and suitability of a development proposal in the site and surrounds, including its interaction with existing and as yet unconstructed development proposals.
The bill also adopts a simple and certain approach to time frames for development assessment processes. It will use a complete application process for deciding an application, where the clock starts upon receiving a full application and stops at the Territory Planning Authority requiring further information to decide the development application. The bill introduces new transparency requirements for advice, decisions and information to be published on the authority’s website. Community and industry will be able to go to a single website to access all the information they need about planning in the territory.
The bill provides the Minister for Planning and Land Management with a territory priority project declaration power. This will enable the minister, with the support of the Chief Minister, to declare certain significant projects to proceed through a new pathway. Proposals would need to achieve a major government policy outcome that will significantly benefit the people of the ACT; substantially affect the achievement of the desired future planning outcomes set out in the planning strategy, a relevant district strategy, the Territory Plan or any relevant zone; or deliver critical infrastructure or facilities that also significantly benefit the people of the ACT.
These proposals would relate to three categories of projects: first, projects of the scale and significance that have been the subject of specific legislation in recent years, such as the light rail; second, government projects that have been approved at the development application stage by the minister, such as the Canberra Hospital expansion; and, third, major private proposals that will deliver significant public benefit, such as critical public housing.
A consultation notice would be published, setting out the proposal to declare the project as a territory priority project. All representations made in response to the notice will be considered when deciding to declare a project as a territory priority project. Once a project is declared as a territory priority project, the Minister for Planning and Land Management will be the decision-maker for the subsequent development application.
The bill will carry across most of the provisions from the Planning and Development Act relating to leasing and licensing. The bill will better clarify and reshape how the
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