Community planning services in Glenelg Shire Council : 1998-2005 ...

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28 Did the council comply with key legislative, planning scheme and other requirements? RESPONSE provided by Glenelg Shire Council Recommendation agreed. An internal audit committee review of town planning is scheduled for January 2006, January 2007 and January 2008 in the adopted Glenelg Shire Council 4-year internal audit plan. A random review of the planning files will be included in the audit. A pre-lodgement certification process will be considered subject to suitably qualified town planning practitioners available in the region to ensure the cost of the process is not prohibitive. Also, the certifier must be independent of council. 3.3 Notification of application “There are not many actions that owners can undertake on their land which do not affect others in some way.” 13 Decisions on planning applications can have a direct impact upon people’s lives, their livelihood and physical surrounds. In some cases, they can have far-reaching social and environmental implications. An objective of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 is for any changes to the current use of land or proposed development of land to take into account community interests. In practice, this means giving those affected by planning decisions an opportunity to comment on the application before the decision is made. 3.3.1 The material detriment requirement When an application is lodged, the council must decide who will be advised of the proposal and how the notice will be provided. The Act requires councils (as responsible authorities) to notify certain people of an application for a planning permit, unless they are satisfied that the grant of a permit would not cause material detriment to any person. In broad terms, material detriment means a potentially adverse impact such as a loss of privacy, a blocked view, overshadowing, noise disturbance, the loss of amenity caused by the loss of vegetation on nearby land, or the effect of unsightly development. Once notified, affected people have an opportunity to lodge an objection. 13 Department of Sustainability and Environment website – An introduction to planning, www.dse.vic.gov.au
Did the council comply with key legislative, planning scheme and other requirements? 29 Another opportunity for community participation is where the council or its town planner invites informal feedback on planning proposals that may be of interest to the wider community, even though there may be no requirement to give notice. An example of where a planner may seek such feedback could be where a development is proposed in one of the shire’s town centres. While there is no statutory requirement to give notice of the proposal, the council or planner may find it prudent to do so, to achieve a better planning outcome. The Act does not specify what matters must be taken into account by councils in deciding whether or not material detriment may be caused to a person. The council has full discretion in deciding whether a notice is needed because a proposal is likely to be of interest or concern to the community. However, both the courts and VCAT have considered the question of material detriment and a review of the decisions from these bodies indicates that: detriment must be real – not trivial, inconsequential or imaginary minor detriment can still be material it is important to consider detriments not immediately apparent, and to take a cautious approach when in doubt, the council should give notice14 . The possibility of material detriment needs to be carefully considered as a person who would have been entitled to object to an application (and who does not receive notice of the application) may seek amendment or cancellation of the permit. In these circumstances, the council may be at risk of receiving a claim for compensation. In practice, it is common for councils and town planners to err on the side of caution and give notice to any person potentially affected by a planning application. As a result, we would expect notice to be given in a high proportion of planning applications. 14 Advice provided to the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office by the Victorian Government Solicitor, 12 January 2005.
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Page 3 and 4: The Hon. Monica Gould MP The Hon. J
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Appendix A. Performance improvement
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Appendix B. Contract for town plann
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FIGURE C1: AUDIT CASE STUDIES INDEX
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