Council has been invited to submit an application for up to $5.5 million in funding under the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program, as recognition by the NSW Government for its efforts in improving DA processing times.
Merrylands Civic Square has been chosen as the project for funding under the Program.
“As one of the fastest growing areas of Sydney, we’re not making applicants wait for lengthy periods of time to know the outcome of their development proposal,” Mayor Steve Christou said.
“When our Council was established in 2016 following the merger process, we inherited a significant backlog of development applications.
“However, we have an experienced and dedicated team that has been making improvements to our planning processes, systems and controls and it’s good to see that this is translating into results when it comes to processing times for DAs, and that the median processing time continues to go down”.
“I am pleased that the team I lead has been able to transform this situation and provide one of the fastest approvals in the State.”
The NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program incentivises local councils to accelerate their assessments of development applications (DAs) and rezonings to create new development capacity and meet demand for housing and employment over the next decade.
The trend reflects recent improvements in assessment times for local development applications lodged to Cumberland City Council. Between July 2020 and January 2021, Council achieved a median DA processing time of 78 days, beating a target of 86 days.
“Council will continue to strive to exceed targets for median DA processing times and we look forward to working with the State Government to progress this exciting project,” said Mayor Steve Christou.
