DA panel to begin in July

Waverley Council has revealed that a new Development Assessment Panel will begin next month.

The independent panel will be in charge of determining significant development applications (DA) in the Waverley local government area (LGA).

Significant DAs include developments where Council is the landowner and applications where commercial developments are worth more than $3 million in value.

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts said the new panel will have a high level of expertise, with the first meeting to take place on July 24.

“We were determined that we would have the best representation and membership available [and] we are delighted to have an extremely high calibre of talented experts on the panel who combine experience, knowledge and a range of skills,” she said.

The panel will consider applications where a residential development has received three or more unresolved objections, and any development that has six or more unresolved objections.

Council is widely considered a leader in environmental sustainability policies, with its Local Environment Plan (LEP) ensuring houses are built to environmentally sustainable standards.

In a 2009-10 report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Waverley municipality was found to be the densest council area in all of Australia. A Council spokesperson said Waverley subsequently has strict criteria on the design of houses.

“Every new development has an impact upon adjoining properties, as we live in a dense area. Council’s Local Environment Plan sets out criteria on what the height should be and what the floor-space ratio should be, and then we look at the Development Control Plan to decide on how we can achieve that,” he said.

But Jane Johnson, a local Bondi resident and architect, has raised concerns over the environmental sustainability of large houses.

“There is so much discussion in the media about environmental sustainability and yet Australians continue to build bigger and bigger houses,” she said.

While Ms Johnson recognises the value of the Waverley LEP, she called for a greater emphasis to be placed on the Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) rolled out by the State Government in 2004.

BASIX rates the expected performance of any new residential building in terms of water and energy efficiency, and is considered to be a strong indicator for the environmental sustainability of development applications.

By Daniel Paperny and Keira Morris-Akeroyd