Background

Council undertakes an annual review of fees and charges for Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP) amendments. This ensures that the costs to Council of assessing and processing planning proposals and DCP amendments are adequately covered.

What’s happening now?

Council has reviewed the fees associated with private proponent led planning proposals and DCP amendments. The review considered fees charged by similar sized Sydney councils and further incentivising pre-planning proposals to improve the merit of planning proposals submitted.

Through this review a proposed schedule of fees and charges has been developed for 2018/2019. At its meeting on 24 April 2018, Council resolved to place the proposed fees and charges amendments on public exhibition. This will be for 28 days in accordance with Section 610F of the Local Government Act 1993.

Proposed changes include:

• Introducing fees for precinct-wide pre-planning and planning proposals. Precincts would generally comprise multiple lots or street blocks.
• Increasing the pre-planning proposal fees by 16% to 25%.
• Replacing staged payment of planning proposal fees with one fee to be paid at lodgement and increasing fees by 11% to 50%.
• Introducing an additional fee when a planning proposal is amended to cover the costs of assessing a new set of documents. This would be 25% of the original fee for minor proposals and 50% for others.
• Providing a refund when a planning proposal and/or DCP amendment is withdrawn before it is reported to Council. The amount refunded is up to 50% of the original fee and will reflect the time and money spent assessing the proposal.
• Clarifying that planning proposals needing a DCP amendment will incur the relevant fee. The fee schedule differentiates between minor, major, complex and precinct amendments rather than amendments to an existing DCP and preparing a new site specific DCP.
• Amending the ‘additional costs and expenses’ to ensure that expenses associated with referral to the Inner West Planning Panel and the Architectural Excellence Panel can be recovered.

Have your say

You can make a submission on the proposed 2018/ 2019 fees and charges for amendments to the LEP and DCP using the form below. The last day to provide feedback is Tuesday 12 June 2018.

What happens next?

A report including the submissions received and the proposed fees and charges (including any amendments) will be submitted for endorsement by Council at a meeting.

Once endorsed, the schedule will be included in Inner West Council’s Fees and Charges 2018/ 2019.