Page 3935 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 15 Sept 2009
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builders wishing to make use of the expanded range of exemptions. These utility matters, where applicable, are handled during the building application phase of a development. So nothing is compromised.
There have also been significant rule changes to further simplify and streamline the development assessment process. New rules permit exempt structures to be added during the construction of a larger ACTPLA-approved development without having to change the development approval. New rules also permit development approval to be modified in minor ways without repeat agency referral or public notification. These particular rule changes required modification of the Planning and Development Act and will be made permanent by this bill.
In relation to leasing, a number of regulation changes have been made to simplify the process for direct land sale of land, the procedures for payment of rural and other leases, the definition of concessional leases and the assessment of leases in land identified by the commonwealth national capital plan as designated land. Changes are also made to confirm the status of leases over commonwealth national land should the commonwealth elect to change the status of this land from national land to territory land. Some of these rule changes required modification of the Planning and Development Act and are made permanent by this bill.
There have been a number of recent territory plan changes. Technical variations, as opposed to full territory plan variations, have delivered important changes that remove or simplify the level of documentation and utility endorsements required for development applications or compliance with exemption rules. A number of clarifications have been made to the territory plan codes and development tables. I note that the Planning and Development Act had sufficient flexibility and adaptability to permit several of these technical variations to be made quickly and simply.
In addition to the short-term reforms, the government has established a territory plan review program to review the structure and content of the plan to ensure that it is an easy-to-use document that continues to meet the needs of the ACT community. The priorities for the review are the single dwelling housing development code, multi-unit housing development code and the residential subdivision code and community facility zone development code. The review for these matters is well underway and the following territory plan variation process should commence in early 2010.
The reforms that I have just outlined remove over 40 per cent of residential development from the requirement for development approval. This means that industry can get on with the job of delivering a range of housing types to meet community needs in a more timely and cost-effective way. It also means that ACTPLA staff can focus their energies on assessing the larger, more complex applications and getting them out the door more quickly. This is good news for families and good news for our economy.
I mentioned earlier that recent planning reforms included further development of the systems and processes that underpin the new planning system. I am pleased to say that the first electronic or internet lodgement of development application occurred this year on 20 April and that, on average, currently around 25 per cent of development applications are being lodged online, with milestones for progressively higher take-up
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