Greens slam New South Wales Planning Assessment Commission
Our Tweet of the Day comes from Greens Member of the NSW Parliament, David Shoebridge, who earlier this week took to tweeting his belief that the state's top planning body, the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC), is nothing more than a "rubber stamp" for the Planning Department.
He noted that of 234 decisions made by the body, just 4% were refusals and with 95% of determinations made agreeing with the Department of Planning's recommendations.
Those responding to the tweet, after 13 retweets and 6 favourites at the time of writing, asked Shoebridge whether developers perhaps had a better understanding of planning before submitting a Development Application. Meanwhile, @GlobeAlone pointed out that at $250,000 for the cost of a DA process, it's unlikely developers will push anything through that is likely to be refused.
The state's top planning body is little more than a rubber stamp for the Department https://t.co/wLepQhb822 #nswpol pic.twitter.com/jmHZDfV38a
— David Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeMLC) February 25, 2014"With a 95% approval rate and even higher Department compliance rate, serious questions need to be asked about the efficiency, utility and institutional independence of the PAC," Shoebridge announced.
"The research further shows that when only one member, rather than the more usual three, is placed on a PAC panel for a planning decision then the PAC has a 100% approval rate."
"In these cases the concerns of community members are institutionally ignored," he said.
A full list of the developments analysed is available online in an excel spreadsheet. The small number of refusals listed included Dolans Bay Marina, for potentially adversely affecting flood behaviour, a Creek Street Hastings Point development due to the scale and location not being in the public interest and a Kemps Creek development, with the site not being said to be suitable for the project.