Report to Council
8 March 2023
At its meeting on Tuesday 13 March Council will review officer's report and consider recommendations about the Tree Management Development Control Plan.
Read the report below
Officer recommendations
That Council adopt the Development Control Plan (Tree Management DCP 2023) to commence on 1 April 2023.
2.That Council exhibit a new tree application fee structure based on the cost of works ($154 for works proposed less than $5000 and $243.20 for works proposed greater than $5000), as a part of the 2023/2024 Fees and Charges.
DISCUSSION
At its Ordinary Council meeting held on 26 October 2021, Council noted that the Tree DCP 2020 was inconsistent with the NSW Vegetation SEPP and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. Council resolved to review the DCP and report back to Council.
Feedback from the community over the past 24 months has identified a range of issues in regard to the workability of the Tree DCP application processes. These comments were regarding the complexity around categories for application types at lodgment, high application costs and property damage claims.
Council received an increase in applications after the adoption of the Tree DCP 2020 of 148%. This slowed the turnaround time on applications to a minimum of 12 weeks as additional staffing was not available.
This version of the policy aims to address:
Standardisation of key definitions with other legislation and neighbouring Councils to
limit confusion for industry practitioners,
provide distance exemptions to limit risk and claims to dwelling houses,
provide further exemptions to allow property owners to manage minor vegetation works
on their property without Council consent (where other legislation does not prohibit),
provide simplification of the application system for users (reduce application types and simplify criteria,
lower permit fees by introducing a consistent fee structure to match the existing development application fee structure,
speed up application processing times as there will be less applications regarding the above exemptions and less insurance claims for property damage,
free up staff time to allow compliance investigations for conditions of consent for replanting to meet Council’s current and future canopy targets,
have trees sustainably growing in optimum locations, providing maximum canopy cover on properties to meet Council canopy targets, mitigating the effects of global heating and creating more liveable, cool spaces around dwellings.
At Council’s meeting on 10th May 2022, Council resolved to:
1. Place the attached draft Tree Management component of the Development Control Plan (TREE DCP 2022) on public exhibition and;
2. That the draft Tree DCP 2022 be reported back to Council with the community feedback results.
Minor amendments regarding the definition of a ‘dwelling’ were discussed during the meeting and changes were requested to be made to include multi-unit dwellings. These were added and standardised to match the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 prior to exhibition. The draft document was placed on exhibition for the period 3 June - 7 July 2022 via Your Say Inner West (YSIW) engagement platform. The results are included in the enclosed document further below.
By way of summary of the community feedback, whilst a portion of the community initially responded ‘No’ to not support this policy, through the review and analysis of feedback received, Council is confident that the community concerns have been addressed.
In this regard, respondents are in favour of a policy that protects more trees, provides increased canopy and biodiversity outcomes and provides accountability to the community through compliance activities. Draft Tree Management DCP 2023 demonstrates that it can provide those outcomes as well as provide a less complex application process. Draft Tree Management DCP 2023 has been updated to reflect the changes in the current State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) Biodiversity and Conservation 2021 and all previous legal issues have been resolved in full.
At Council’s meeting on 8th November 2022, Council resolved to
That Council defer the report to the December meeting to receive a summary table of
the criteria for applications in the draft DCP in comparison to the existing DCP.
A summary table of the criteria was presented to the Council meeting on 6 December 2022. At this meeting it was resolved:
To appreciate the further feedback received, additional refinement of the draft Tree Management DCP2023 has been undertaken to provide an even more user-friendly document that provides clarify.
The application assessment criteria was amended to reflect Tree DCP 2020 and provide an easy to understand assessment criteria for users to appreciate how Council assesses trees and what Council requires as supporting information for a merit based assessment. The exempt pruning provision was extended to allow further exempt works (10%) and to come into line with some neighbouring Councils. Formatting and numbering through the document has been changed to allow for simplicity of reading and reflect the documents’ final location in the consolidated Inner West Council DCP. There has been no material change to the document exhibited.
To accompany the draft Tree Management DCP 2023, Council is updating its compliance process to strengthen our approach and ensure planting of replacement trees associated with tree applications. This includes advice of tree removals to the community, new robust conditions of consent requiring replanting, and an internal audit process to provide governance of the system.
A Councillor workshop was held on 7 March 2023 which provided explanation of these items.
It should be noted that draft Tree Management DCP2022 has been renamed draft Tree Management DCP2023 to reflect the new calendar year the item is being considered for adoption.
It is recommended that draft Tree Management DCP 2023 be adopted.
Timing
Draft Tree Management DCP 2023 is proposed to come into effect on 1 April 2023.
This will allow time for Council staff to update/upgrade the website to help customers get the correct information that pertains to their individual circumstance.
Fees and Charges
At the moment 40% of trees are assessed for free under a minor works application. The remainder of trees are assessed under an application fee for 1-3 trees at a cost of $243.20 with an additional fee per tree after of $48.80.
It is planned that the Draft Tree Management DCP 2023 will have all applications assessed through the application fee process. The current fee of $243.20 is higher than a number of neighbouring Councils and it is recommended that the new cost is based on the costs of works proposed via the application and align with other Council development applications. In this regard, a new tree application fee structure based on the cost of works ($154 for works proposed less than $5000 and $243.20 for works proposed greater than $5000) is proposed which would need to be exhibited on endorsement of the new DCP.
Draft Tree Management DCP 2023 can come into effect earlier using the existing fee. It is recommended that Council exhibit a new fee structure as a part of the annual fees and charges process which would commence on 1 July 2023.
