[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) Sartor Does Developers’ Dirty Work

[Christopher Holley]

Sartor Does Developers’ Dirty Work 

Planning Minister Frank Sartor’s latest attack on local councils is
part of a misleading campaign that he is running on behalf of some of
the state’s largest property developers, according to NSW Greens MP,
Sylvia Hale.

“Since the election the Planning Minister and the property
industry’s two leading front groups, the Urban Taskforce and the
Property Council, have been running a concerted campaign to remove the
remaining powers to approve developments from local councils and place
them in the hands of industry-based panels,” said Ms Hale.

“Mr Sartor made no mention of this during the election campaign
because he knows that voters don’t support the sort of development
free-for-all that will result from his plans.”

“Elected councillors handle less than 10% of approvals. The vast
majority are handled by council officers.” 

"The main cause of delays are developers submitting proposals that
breach height and density restrictions, delays in approvals from state
government authorities and inadequate resourcing of council planning
departments.” 

“But Mr Sartor and his barrackers in the the Urban Taskforce ignore
those issues because they don’t suit their campaign to strip planning
powers away from local communities.”

“There is no doubt that if more resources were put into council
planning departments there would be some improvement in turn around
times for development applications. But the Councils’ resources are
restricted by the state government’s rate capping policy.”

“The state government is engaged in a cynical exercise of restricting
local councils’ ability to raise revenue and then condemning them for
not properly resourcing their planning departments.”

“This government intends to squeeze an additional 1 million people
into Sydney over the next 25 years. To make that work it intends to take
planning power away from local communities so that massive residential
and industrial developments throughout Sydney can be built without
delay.“

“While their public statements express concern for people doing minor
extensions to their homes their real agenda is to remove the ability of
local communities to stop massive overdevelopment of their suburbs,”
Ms Hale said.

Contact: Chris Holley (02) 9230 3030 / 0437 779 546