News

Cut process time for DAs

PROCESSING times for development applications (DA) are improving, says Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou.

With an average processing time of 155 days, Cumberland was one of the state’s worst performers when it came to DA processing times during 2017/18.
However, Cr Christou said that during the 2018/19 financial year, Cumberland achieved a median processing time of 96 days, with almost half of development applications determined within 90 days.
“Since the amalgamation process began in 2016, Cumberland Council has been working hard to clear a backlog of development applications and we can see that the median processing time is starting to go down,” he said.
“This is largely due to the fact that the council has been doing a lot of work to review its processes, systems and planning controls to minimise the time required to assess and determine development applications.
“With the development of a single Local Environment Plan and Development Control Plan next year, I think we can expect to see further improvements in how long it takes for the council to assess development applications.”
He said they were “very optimistic about the future in Cumberland”.
“In just the past week, Merrylands was named as one of Sydney’s suburbs that are likely to experience a property boom due to increasing infrastructure and gentrification of the area,” he said.