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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 228 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Since early 1999, the Government and PALM have been working with a highly experienced consultant to review its development assessment systems, and have developed a number of key reforms that are aimed at reducing unnecessary procedures and streamlining assessment processes. In conjunction with the changes to the Land (Planning and Environment) Regulations, this package of amendments takes planning and land administration another step toward the greater efficiency and higher level of service that we in the Assembly have called for over recent years.

I note for the attention of members the following main features of the Bill. Clauses 4 to 8 amend the Act to allow for various planning and assessment activities carried out by PALM to be notified and progressed in a more integrated way. Plan variations, development applications and environmental assessments often occur in relation to a single proposal, and these amendments will make it easier to coordinate these activities. Sections 9 and 19 of the Act are being amended to allow the authority to specify that the defined period, during which a draft plan variation has interim effect, does not apply.

It will be possible to register lease and development conditions on the PALM register. L&Ds, as they are called, are the conditions relating to the use and development of the land, and are approved at the time leases are granted. They occur most often in estate development situations. It is important that these documents be available for inspection by the public and those who wish to purchase properties that may be affected by any special requirements. Mr Speaker, it will no longer be necessary to notify an adjoining property of a development application if that property is owned by the applicant for approval or by the lessee of the land that the proposal relates to. The amendment corrects an anomaly that has existed for some time.

Development applications relating to the Gungahlin central area are to be referred to the Gungahlin Development Authority for comment. The requirement to do so was inadvertently omitted from a previous amendment to the Act. The power to determine a development application after the prescribed period expires has been clarified so that the applicant, and any other interested person, may take appropriate action. The period for objecting to a development application may now be extended. Again, this makes coordination with related activities, such as an environmental assessment, easier.

Notification of decisions on development applications will be limited to the applicants and those who lodge objections. The cost of forwarding notices of the decision to all those who had notice of the application has proven very high and has achieved very little, particularly where little interest has been shown in the proposal. The several powers to make regulations in relation to notification and appeals have been consolidated and clarified, and the regulations now provide for signs to be exempted from the operation of the provisions of Part VI of the Act. The power to make orders against lessees who breach their lease or deed of agreement has been restored.

Mr Speaker, I mentioned earlier that these amendments are proposed in conjunction with amendments to the Land (Planning and Environment) Regulations. Those amendments, to be tabled in this Assembly today, also represent another step towards the greater efficiency and higher level of service that we in this Assembly, and more

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