A new ‘novel’ released today captures the mad, the bad and the downright ridiculous controls that have strangled development in NSW.
Planning Gone Mad is a fictionalised account of the current development assessment process in NSW, released by the Property Council of Australia
However, every step in the story is faithfully informed by the first hand experiences of members of the Property Council.
“Crazy examples of pointless red tape strangle projects to death every day across NSW,” NSW Executive Director, Glenn Byres, said today.
“The system is plagued by an ingrained culture of poor implementation, lacklustre customer service and no accountability, particularly among local councils.
“Too often local councils make proponent wade through thousands of pages of contradictory and nonsensical development controls.
“Trying to define ‘pet-friendly’ outcomes in new residential buildings or comply with planning controls that run to over 1500 pages are commonplace challenges.
“New planning legislation will only help if it is built around an agenda to also tackle the anti-growth and noisy NIMBY movement.
“The Property Council is fully engaged with the NSW Government’s review of the current planning system.
“We are actively working with the Government to promote better solutions that improve strategic planning, community consultation and development assessment.
“We need to build a system that avoids creeping resistance to any reform agenda, or risk tipping NSW back to where it started.”
Contact: Glenn Byres, NSW Executive Director 0419 695 435.
