Sydney councils that drag heels on housing DA claim there are good reasons
By Michael Koziol and Megan Gorrey
Councils pinged as the slowest in Sydney at assessing development applications have blamed tech woes, staff shortages and old DAs lingering in the system after they were named and shamed by a new state government league table.
Several councils also disputed the figures published by the Department of Planning on Thursday as part of a Minns government push to expedite housing approvals and build 377,000 new homes over the next five years.
Georges River Council, which took an average of 259 days to assess a residential DA in 2023-24 – the slowest in the state – said there were “inconsistencies” between the state government’s data and its own figures.
Its median assessment time across all development types was down 3.5 per cent to 139 days, it said, and it had cleared 30 applications which were undetermined for more than 400 days.
Mayor Sam Elmir acknowledged “challenges” in assessing proposals, blaming staff shortages. He also said the council had gone through a period of intense strategic planning – biodiversity plans, foreshore scenic protection plans and town centre masterplans – which chewed up resources, but these were largely complete, meaning it could “get cracking” on assessing DAs.
The table shows North Sydney Council assessed just 77 residential DAs in 2023/24 – among the lowest in Sydney – taking an average of 246 days to do so, making it the second slowest in NSW.
North Sydney is among the slowest councils for residential development application approvals.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Mayor Zoe Baker partly blamed “an issue with resourcing and staff” and IT failures for the poor result. “Ours is an early 2000s system that’s clunky with parts that don’t speak to each other.”
She also said the council took a “customer service” approach to DAs whereby it worked through technical defects with the applicant, rather than going straight to refusal, “and that takes time”.
The council says the state government’s figures represent gross approval time frames, without accounting for “stop the clock” provisions when the council requests more information about an application.
Sutherland Shire Council was the third slowest in the state, with an average assessment time of 241 days, which Liberal mayor Carmelo Pesce attributed to a handful of “very old” applications in the system.
“Am I pleased about it? No, to be honest. It’s not good enough,” he said. But he said his council had since put different measures in place, such as requiring information to be delivered in 14 days. “If you measured us now, month by month, you’d see a dramatic improvement,” he said.
The league table was broadly welcomed by housing advocates and the building industry. Housing Now chair David Borger welcomed the transparency.
“Tools that allow constituents to see how their council is tracking in terms of addressing the housing crisis will send a shiver down the spine of NIMBY representatives,” he said.
The Planning Department has also pledged to publish its own league table, showing how long it takes to assess applications for state significant projects (including housing) and infrastructure.