ENVIRONMENT GROUPS REJECT DEVELOPERS' ATTEMPT TO CONTROL DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT
Monday, 16 February 2004 10:00
The Total Environment Centre (TEC) and The Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC) have said Local Development Taskforce recommendations will deregulate development assessment at the expense of quality planning, environmental assessment and community consultation.
NSW environment groups have warned that proposed changes to planning laws, in a report by the State Government appointed Taskforce would result in a majority of residential developments proceeding without council assessment, opening up fragile environmental areas to poorly planned and destructive development.
"The recommendations would radically cut government regulation of developers' activities. They include opening the gates to residential developments occurring without council assessment in environmentally fragile areas," said Total Environment Centre campaigner Fran Kelly.
"The Local Development Taskforce is dominated by developers and has based its recommendations around anecdotal evidence provided by the development industry. The recommendations have been completely rejected by Local Government, professional planning associations, environment groups and the community," said NCC Urban and Coastal Planning Officer Craig Morrison.
"The impacts of planning deregulation on the NSW coastline and Blue Mountains in particular would be enormous. The Taskforce has made no consideration of environment, sustainable development, or impacts on the broader community," said Ms Kelly.
" The report fails to recognise incomplete or poorly prepared applications are the biggest factor in slowing down approval times. If local government simply rejected all incomplete or poorly prepared applications the approval process would become much faster," said Mr Morrison
For further information
Contact
:
fran kelly
Phone
:
61 2 9299 5599
Email
:
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WWW
:
http://www.tec.org.au/
