MEDIA RELEASE 25.08.2019 - LOCAL PLANNING PANELS
MEDIA RELEASE
CHAMBER BACKS STATE GOVERNMENTS LOCAL PLANNING PANELS
The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has today backed the NSW State Government’s introduction of a Local Planning Panel on the Central Coast following the announcement that the new LLP will be in operation in early 2020.
“This is great news and vindicates the Chambers previous calls for the introduction of local planning panels in line with current arrangements in the Sydney metro area”, said Peninsula Chamber President Matthew Wales.
“The Local Planning Panel will take the pressure off the Central Coast Council for sensitive, complex and high-value development applications over $5M”.
“It will provide much needed certainty and transparency to the planning process and streamline the assessment of development applications at a time when the industry is under pressure to deliver much needed high quality residential floor space over the next 20 years”, said Matthew Wales.
“This system will also free up Councillors so that they can concentrate on the long-term strategic planning needed to address the projected 75,000 extra people who will come to the Central Coast by 2036”.
“It is also important to note that the panel will be run by three independent industry experts plus a community representative so that applications are purely assessed on merit. This is key to ensuring that high value projects are determined by professional assessors in a timely fashion”, said Matthew Wales.
“The State Member for Terrigal, who has driven this decision, should be congratulated in ensuring that the Local Planning Panel system will be introduce early next year”.
“This decision will give the building and development industry greater confidence as more high value residential projects come on line over the next 12 months”, said Chamber Vice President Wayne Dowdle.
“This particularly important for the Peninsula where we are now seeing greater levels of investment in high quality residential and commercial development especially in Ettalong Beach town centre. It is vitally important from a local business perspective that certainty and transparency is maintained which is exactly what the Local Planning Panel will deliver” said Wayne Dowdle.