Page 2089 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
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the substance of the provision cannot be changed. For example, an amendment to relocate an area-specific policy from a development code to a precinct code without any change in the provision will now be a technical variation. This proposed new technical variation is in keeping with the other types of technical variations provided for under the act.
Existing section 88 of the act requires public consultation through newspaper notice of specified types of technical variations. The proposed new technical variation will be subject to these consultation requirements. The community will, therefore, be aware of the proposed technical amendment and will have the opportunity to make comment. Persons who feel, for example, that the proposed variation is not clear or too extensive will be able to make their views known through this process.
Clauses 11 and 12 of the bill include amendments that relate to the public notification of a standard draft territory plan variation. Under the existing act the Assembly can reject a draft variation in its entirety. Any such rejection must be publicly notified in a newspaper. However, the Assembly also has the power to reject some but not all elements of a draft variation. There is currently no requirement for a public notification of a partial rejection. The amendments made by the bill require partial rejections to be notified also in the newspaper and on the ACT legislation register.
Section 47 of the Planning and Development Act permits applications to be made to the Planning and Land Authority for a certified copy of the territory plan or a part of it—that is, a copy that is certified to be correct and able to be relied upon. Clause 9 of the bill removes this provision because it is now unnecessary. This is because an up-to-date copy of the territory plan is now available electronically on the ACT legislation register. Under the Evidence Act, documents that are printed from the register are able to be submitted as evidence in a court.
The bill makes amendments related to development applications and the state development plans. Clause 21 of the bill amends the Planning and Development Act to make it clear that a development application for the approval of a proposed new estate must include the relevant estate development plan. This was arguably an existing requirement, but this amendment makes it clear. Clause 7 of the bill also requires the estate development plan to be made an associated document—that is, a document that must be recorded and made publicly available for inspection by the Planning and Land Authority pursuant to section 30 of the act.
I would now like to turn to a number of amendments made for practical reasons that have come to light as a result of operational experience. The Planning and Development Act currently requires copies of public comments on a draft territory plan to be made available for public inspection. Specifically, the act requires the comments to be made available almost immediately—that is, from the day after the relevant public consultation period ends. This requirement is impractical as it does not allow sufficient time for the necessary administrative measures to be completed prior to the release of such material, such as the consideration of privacy protocols and the collating of comments into a format that can actually be published.
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