Being a councilor is a huge task, and development issues have a tendency to pit residents against planning regulations – and you’re in the middle. So here are some lessons from previous Councilors that may be useful to you…
MAV – Training for Councilors from the Municipal Association of Victoria.
VLGA – Councillor and Officer Resources
General guidance for dealing with planning officers on planning matters:
- Question & Challenge. Delegate Reports from a planning officer should be written so non-planning people can make judgment calls using them. Don’t let the Planning Dept baffle you. For controversial issues, be sure to check the full Officer’s report to council, not just the summary pages which can omit key details.
- Summaries and conclusions can gloss over too much: “.. the plans generally comply with the planning scheme...” effectively means “they don’t meet all relevant aspects of our planning controls, but on balance we’re prepared to accept them”. Any exercise of discretion should be clearly and objectively explained, and can’t be justified just because it is ‘balanced’ by the use of less discretion for another requirement – all the relevant planning guidelines for each proposal should be complied with unless there are good planning reasons for not doing so.
- Get it in writing. Officers can easily dismiss issues raised verbally, but ask them to confirm in writing so you’re covered – it’s always good practice for your own purposes and for transparency & the public record to have a written record of any contentious issues or decisions
- Make sure you get a specific answer to the question asked, and all the questions – see point 1. Sometimes minor issues can distract attention from more significant ones.
- Ask how the big picture has been considered – what about traffic and parking in the locality? If the proposal will set a precedent, what’s likely to happen to local amenity after five or ten similar projects are developed nearby? Planning is not done properly in isolation.
There have been a number of critical reports over the last two decades by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office on local government management of town planning and performance monitoring. They’re a real eye-opener and confirm what residents already know – that the permit assessment process is often flawed in practice, along with subsequent permit decisions and council performance reporting:
Land use and development in Victoria, Dec.1999
Victoria’s planning framework for land use and development, May 2008
Managing Victoria’s planning system for Land Use & Development, March 2017
Performance reporting in local government, June 2008
Performance reporting by local government, April 2012
For example, the second report above found that 78% of planning permit decisions were seriously flawed in terms of the requirements of the relevant planning scheme and the Act. Planning officers are not infallible and there are various reasons why poor decisions are made, ranging from overwork or lack of care and attention, through to “undue influence” and corruption. But without an effective ICAC in Victoria it is almost impossible to properly investigate these cases.
Our “Flawed Cases file” reveals some of the ways that “errors” occur in the planning permit assessment process – if exposed, they are invariably ignored or dismissed by the relevant council as mistakes, despite the fact that in many cases a number of unlikely “errors” would have had to occur together to produce the problematic result.
We suggest councillors set up a s86 Special Committee of Council (under the Local Govt. Act 1989) to oversee complaints and issues of probity or integrity that arise in the course of Council providing its statutory services, including town planning permit assessments. To be effective and to uphold the interests of ratepayers and the community, this oversight committee would have to report regularly back to full Council and MUST include several independent external members such as representatives of relevant community groups, planning consultants, etc. All members would be subject to the usual confidentiality and conflict of interest provisions and be able to deal with sensitive issues in camera. The aim is to improve management processes to prevent problems re-occurring.
Such a committee would be able to deal with sensitive issues internally but would ensure that all councillors were aware of concerns raised by the community and thus able to raise the bar for both councilors and staff. Just the knowledge that this committee existed would engender better compliance and performance by council as a whole.
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS OF INTEREST:
How a council can undermine community consultation in town planning – a case study of the Yarra Planning Community Advisory Committee, with references.