DAP Criticism a Smokescreen

In the light of recent criticism of the DAP system by some local governments, WA Executive Director Lino Iacomella spoke to the media in defence of the current Development Assessment Panel system.

“The criticism of Development Assessment Panels is misplaced and a smokescreen for some councils not managing their local planning schemes effectively,” he said.

“The fact is Development Assessment Panels are essential for providing independent, consistent and professional decision making in the local development assessment process. Recent data from the Department of Planning also shows that DAPs are operating very effectively and that 94% of DAP decisions are in line with council recommendations. 

“Before the introduction of  DAPs, a lot of development applications were settled in the courts because of the high rate of disputation in local governments.  This was extremely costly for the community and the broader economy, especially during the boom and it was part of the reason why we had the severe infrastructure bottlenecks in WA at the time.

“The 2015 WA Parliamentary Inquiry into DAPs also found that DAPs play an essential role in the planning process and that the planning system would work a lot better if local governments paid more attention to modernising their local planning schemes.

“The proper role of local governments in the planning system is to engage with their local community at an early point and to prepare local planning schemes or rules, for independent bodies like DAPs to make unbiased decisions.  It is not appropriate for local governments to set the planning rules and then to be the decision makers because this would expose local governments to conflicts of interest.

“The community has a strong say in the DAP process through the local government representatives on the DAP and by submissions to the DAP by local groups.  

“What local governments conveniently ignore is that DAPs must always make decisions based on local planning schemes prepared by local councils, including schemes that permit a limited amount of planning discretion.  The exercise of planning discretion is strictly controlled by the schemes that are prepared by local governments, and DAPs always operate within these controls.  Local planning schemes permit limited planning discretion to enable innovative outcomes like development bonuses for more affordable housing.   In the past, when councils controlled the whole decision making process the exercise of planning discretion was very arbitrary and inconsistent, which lead to high levels of disputation and ultimately many planning approvals were settled by the State Administrative Tribunal”.