Local grant program to speed up evaluation times
The NSW Government has developed a new scheme to help support 14 selected councils across the state in the assessments of Development Applications (DA) and Planning Proposals (PP).
The $4.9 million program will allow boards to allocate additional resources and implement process improvements that will result in reduced assessment times.
Each of the boards received $350,000 to help improve processes through a range of activities, such as the appointment of additional professional assessment staff and system enhancements.
The Faster Local Assessment Grants program will help councils incorporate long-term changes into their assessment processes that help speed up processing times.
This support will result in:
- accelerate housing supply through expedited assessments of local DAs and PPs
- empower councils to improve housing capacity and outcomes
- gain a better understanding of assessment practices in high-volume residential development councils, to enable targeted improvements across all councils.
14 municipalities were selected according to the following criteria:
- anticipated high volume of housing to be delivered through local DAs, subdivision DAs or PPs
- opportunities to improve assessment times
- had not received funding under the previous RSDA program (2021).
The municipalities eligible for the program are:
- Metropolitan Councils: Canada Bay, Fairfield City, Hawkesbury, Inner West, Penrith City, Wollondilly Shire, Woollahra
- Regional Councils: Cessnock, Eurobodalla, Port Stephens, Queanbeyan-Palerang, Shoalhaven, Singleton, Wollongong.
More information
For more information on the Faster Local Assessment Grants program, including the purpose, how councils were selected and the criteria for participation:
Last page update: 06/23/2022