Page 867 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020

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very large area. Access Canberra is working closely with the Office of the Surveyor-General to implement a more modern solution for public notification.

For complex DAs over large areas containing many blocks, block and section data must be ‘linked’ to the particular DA for the public notification process. Given the complexity and number of blocks involved for this DA, the public notification process was broken down into a number of smaller subsets. To facilitate notification for each subset, some block and section data is unlinked to allow for smaller, more manageable searches. At the end of the notification process, all blocks should be re-linked back to the DA, however this did not occur and only the final notification subset was re-linked. The data is not removed from the database at any time, rather the link to the DA is removed temporarily.

The fact that the block and sections were not re-linked to the DA led to the error when the lease conveyancing search was run. The error did not affect public notification.

(11) The public notification process took place between 28 February to 1 March 2018 and the use of the database occurred during this time.

(12) Development applications of this size and complexity are uncommon. The linking process described above is only undertaken to assist the public notification process.

(13) I am not aware of any other instances and I am advised that this is the first time this matter has been raised with Access Canberra.

(14) A notification officer within Access Canberra.

(15) The operating procedure has introduced a peer review process for any public notification where a block needs to be unlinked from a DA to facilitate the notification process to ensure that the block is re-entered before completion of the process and mitigate the risk of user error.

(16) The ACTmapi development map may have also been impacted during this period of time.

(17) The Draft EIS and DAs were correctly notified, as concurrent applications, between 5 March 2018 and 26 April 2018. Over 500 letters were sent to lessees of blocks adjacent to the proposed development and 12 notification signs were erected along the boundary of the development site. The error in the system occurred after the notification period and therefore did not affect the public notification process. At the time of notification, the letters were sent to the current lessees which, for Ginninderra Estate, was the developer as the estate was not finalised at the time.

(18) Access Canberra was made aware of the matter on 25 November 2019 and discovered the cause on 26 November 2019 after looking into the matter.

(19) The error was rectified on 26 November 2019.

(20) The lease conveyancing enquiry report is prepared at a point in time upon request and advises of DAs on adjacent properties in the last two years.

In these instances, the reports were prepared upon request by the estate developer not the current lessees.


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