Tweed Shire Councillors have voted to increase the threshold from $2.5m to $5m for preparing a council staff report on a development application (DA) and sending it to councillors.
The Staff had put forward that they should provide a report to councillors on a DAs over $10m. Mayor Chris Cherry (Independent) put forward an alternate motion that the threshold should remain at $2.5m. Cr Cherry pointed out that until recently councillors had an email about DAs with a value between $2.5 and $10 million.
‘That [email] outlines the main points of the development, any variations that are being requested, and the submissions – the points that have been raised in submissions. Councillors are then free to either call up this da or say no, we’re happy for it to go on the delegation.
‘I think it’s incredibly important for our community to have a window of transparency into when there are major variations being considered from our development controls. These are the locality plans that are put in place by the community. I think they need to have the background information on why or why not a variation is being proposed.’
Cr Cherry pointed out that only six DAs had been called forward under this system in the last year-and-a-half.
‘I understand that there is an impost on staff, but I think that on balance, it is it’s worth it for the community to receive that transparency, and that level of access to how that is how a decision is made if it’s not going to go in accordance with the development control plan.’
Councillor Rihannon Brinsmead (Liberal) put an alternate motion for a $5m threshold.
‘I know that the staff recommendation was for option A, which was over 10 million,’ said Cr Brinsmead.
‘The current one that we’re discussing is $2.5 to $10m. I’m probably more in favour of option C as a middle ground between what the staff have asked for and what you’ve put forward.’
Both councillor Brinsmead and fellow Liberal councillor James Owen highlighted the backlog of DAs and the level of pressure and that the planning department should be left to make these decisions.
‘I have faith in our staff that they will make the right decisions. I think the checks and balances that are in place to make sure that the right DAs come to us anyway are in place. So this is a this is a compromise between what the staff recommended. Let the staff get through [the DAs] and as counsellors focus on the really big issues affecting the shire,’ said Cr Owen.
Speaking against the increase to $5m Cr Cherry highlighted the importance of public transparency and understanding of their decisions.
‘I think there is a good value in the system. And I think that it allows people the transparency to see if there’s going to be variations that are agreed to this is our reasoning why. It’s not saying that we’re going to make a different decision. It’s about saying that this gives the public a chance to see what is happening. To me five million is too much for having those decisions behind closed doors.’
Cr Brinsmeads amendment was carried, raising the threshold to $5m with the support of Crs Reece Byrnes (Labor), Brinsmead, Owen, and Warren Polglase (Conservative) and Crs Chris Cherry (Mayor), Meredith Dennis (Deputy Mayor), and Cr Nola Firth against.
