Eurobodalla outperforms NSW and council averages in DA times

Eurobodalla Shire Council has outperformed the New South Wales and council group averages for its development assessment times, with an average determination time of 26 days.

These and other results come from the NSW Government’s Local Development Performance Monitoring Report 2014-2015 and were presented at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The report shows that Eurobodalla Council has continued to exceed statutory requirements and has outperformed both the Group 4 region - similar sized councils to Eurobodalla - and the State averages for assessment times.

Mayor Lindsay Brown said this is an excellent effort when considered along with Eurobodalla’s significant environmental complexities and constraints. Do not delete this line

“The highlight in Council’s performance is the average net determination time of 26 days,” he said.

“This result is well below the statutory requirement of 40 days and outperforms the State average of 48 days and the Group 4 average of 33.”

Other key figures released with the report include 626 applications determined by Eurobodalla during 2014-15 for a total development value of $97.7 million.

The report also reveals that Eurobodalla Council has maintained a high degree of efficiency when it comes to applications assessed per planner. In 2014-15 that figure rose to 96 applications assessed per planner, up from 89.7 the previous year. This figure is substantially better than the State average of 58 and the Group 4 council average of 60. Council has 6.5 full time equivalent staff assessing development applications.

Another positive result was the number of development applications that required additional information, which decreased in 2014-15 to 31 per cent compared with 34 per cent the previous year.

Council’s Director of Planning and Sustainability Lindsay Usher said his team’s Development Help Desk is having a positive impact and they will keep working with the development industry to continue to improve.

“We encourage people thinking about building or renovating to contact our Development Help Desk on 02 4474 1231 during business hours to talk with our staff about what they need for their development application. In this way, applicants get all their DA requirements in place before they lodge and we can avoid unnecessary delays to their project,” he said.

Mr Usher told councillors that assessment times remain strong this financial year, with data for the first six months showing average assessment times at 21 days, and 421 applications assessed at a value of $67.45 million.