14 CENTRAL COAST COUNCIL NEWS AMONG THE MANY items in Central Coast Council’s Quarter 3 Performance Report one that stands out is that Council’s Development Application performance is slipping further behind. • DA assessments that should be signed off within 40 days have slipped to 13.7% (Target >30%), • Mean assessments and now running at 144 days (target <80 days), • Median DA assessment times are now 65 days (target <40 days), • The number of DA’s under assessment at the end of March 2024 was 836 (target <750) Additionally, Council has dropped Development Application timeframe targets for DA’s for Employment Generating Developments. The excuse being that with the closure of the Greater Cities Commission this important information is no longer necessary. When the Strategic Plan was implemented Item DP_396 said ‘Improve assessment timeframes for Development Applications for Employment Generating Development’. The Target was ‘Reduce timeframe for assessing commercial, industrial and tourism related development applications by 25% by 30 June 2024’. One Central Coast company with significant industrial land holdings in the region and elsewhere having been frustrated with Council trying to get simple modifications to approved projects has decided to invest in other regions where councils are more receptive. In another instance plans by Woolworths to expand their Distribution Centre at Warnervale have been stymied by the Federal Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek after a so called ‘field of critically endangered orchids’ was found growing in a lawn planted on the site by the company. They mysteriously found an orchid, the Warnervale Orchid, growing in a garden that Woolworths maintains on its site and were obviously not present when Woolworths built the Centre in 2005 Woolworths signalled to the Department of Planning in December 2021 that it had plans to invest $68 million in expanding its Warnervale warehouse and distribution centre. The State Significant Development was for alterations and additions adding an extra 27,767 sqm of warehouse storage and upgrading outdated technology and increasing capacity to handle more product lines and provide faster deliveries. In another instance of Council’s intransigence local billionaire property developer and financier, Tony Denny has written to Central Coast Council giving them until April 5th to respond to a Development Application on land within the East Wadalba land release area. The land, comprising 6.7 Ha at 60 -70 Jensen Road, Wadalba is subject to a Development Application for a 84 lot subdiCONTINUED ON PAGE 17 vision lodged in early 2022. Mr Denny is acting as Mortgagee-in- Possession in respect of the land and is working with the five owners who were unable to discharge their loan obligation due to Council’s intransigence. Should Council not respond positively by the 5th April he will invoke a common law principle known as a Mandamus order that compels them to perform their mandatory duties correctly. In recent years Central Coast Council has resorted to the practice of not responding to DAs and in this way are able to fudge the numbers in respect to approval times. In the end Council has two options: approve the development application or refuse it at which time Mr Denny will take them to the Land and Environment Court. Council gives up on Employment Generating Development Applications Major remediation works for Gosford City Car Park Central Coast Council will commence a significant programme of remediation works at Gosford City Car Park from mid July. The multi-level facility has 650 car spaces providing permanent and casual parking for city centre workers, residents and visitors to Gosford. CENTRAL COAST BUSINESS REVIEW JULY 2024
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