Council urges all planning decisions be removed from its power

A Sydney council has called on both major parties to agree on reforms to remove all planning decisions from the power of councillors as part of a desire to clean up the local government sector.

Georges River Council unanimously approved the motion last month in a growing push from both sides of politics to stop developers and real estate agents running for council in NSW.

Labor councillor Colleen Symington put forward a notice of motion at an April 27 meeting to call on the government to close existing legislative loopholes used by councillors to avoid being defined as a developer or real estate agent.

Property developers, who are banned from making political donations, are currently defined by the NSW Electoral Commission as someone whose business is mainly concerned with the residential or commercial development of land, with the ultimate purpose of its sale or lease of the land for profit.

In the course of that business, they must have made one relevant, pending planning application; and three or more relevant planning applications must have been made and determined within the preceding seven years.

"It would appear that there would be many individuals and corporations that carry on a business mainly concerned with the residential or commercial development of land but do not meet the second part of the definition as they are not involved in the lodgment of planning applications, such as development applications or planning proposals," Cr Symington said.

Broader definition

The motion calls on the government to include a broader range of activities in the definition of a developer, including investors who fund the development, land owners who contribute property, beneficiaries of trusts or companies that reap earnings from developments or planning decisions, and relatives and close associates of any of the above, among other things.

"We need to rebuild the public’s trust in councillors and erase the two adjectives that are most frequently used when describing council or councillors: dodgy and corrupt," Cr Symington said.

The motion, which followed a similar call by Liberal councillor Con Hindi previously put to and approved by council, also sought dismissal, life-time bans, and repayment of costs of subsequent by-elections for councillors who made false declarations on their nomination forms.

The motion was passed following an amendment by councillor Sam Elmir that all planning decisions, including those relating to planning proposals, spot rezonings and voluntary planning agreements, be removed from councillors.

Parties' backing sought

The council has committed to write to the state executives of the Labor and Liberal parties to seek their support and to ask them to implement the position through their preselection processes.

It follows reports the NSW government was looking at amending legislation to ban property developers and real estate agents from running for council.

Local government elections, which were due to take place in September, have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.