Page 618 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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A special precinct area and related declarations around the mental health facility are to be progressed through the proposed public consultation process to the territory executive. I flag at this point, however, that in light of the fact that the Assembly has already made its will known on this matter, the bill includes a special provision to permit a special precinct area and related the proposals to take effect immediately on notification.
In other words, the special precinct area proposals and the mental health facility are to proceed as a notifiable, not a disallowable, instrument. Members will of course have access to the draft proposal when it is released for public comment and I undertake to report to the Assembly on the results of the consultation.
This bill is not all about key government projects, however. The bill, consistent with its overall aim of efficiency, includes new initiatives to assist the private sector to quickly progress significant projects through the planning system. The bill inserts new division 7.3.2A into the Planning and Development Act to enable a development application to be made and assessed against a proposed draft territory plan variation.
The division applies in the situation where a development application cannot be granted under the existing territory plan but could possibly be granted were a proposed territory plan variation to proceed. The provision would permit the proponent to lodge a development application on the basis of a proposed territory plan variation rather than on the basis of the existing territory plan.
The bill would permit the Planning and Land Authority to progress such an application through the public notification, agency referral and assessment stages but no further. Importantly, the development application would not be able to be decided unless and until the proposed territory plan variation commences operation. In this way the proponent could look to save time by having the development application progress some way down the planning process at the same time the territory plan variation is progressed. There is considerable time saving with considerable efficiency in permitting these two processes to proceed in a tandem manner rather than in a linear, sequential manner.
The bill includes another new efficiency option for possible use by a private sector proponent. The option would also be available for a proponent in the government sector. The proposed option applies to the assessment of development applications at the major, high impact end of the assessment scale—that is, development applications assessable in the impact assessment track. Such development applications would ordinarily require the preparation of an environmental impact statement before they can be lodged. The environmental impact statement is often referred to as the EIS, and I will use this term. (Extension of time granted).
The proposal would permit the proponent to complete the required EIS in tandem with the lodgement of the development application itself. As the act stands, the EIS must be completed before the relevant development application can be lodged. The bill amends section 139(2)(f)(ii) of the Planning and Development Act to permit the
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