By speeding up the process of DPA’s to accommodate their 3o year plan the State Government has created challenges not anticipated by Council. All have the potential to compromise us publically and impact our bottom line budget.

I indicated in an earlier blog post that Minister Rau is seemingly hell bent on rushing the DPA reforms necessary to implement their 30 year plan. This is particularly so in relation to the inner metropolitan areas. He has advised an Inner and Middle Metropolitan Corridor Infill DPA is to be undertaken at this time.

This urgent priority for an unusually rapid progression of the re-zoning will require substantial effort by Council if we are to positively influence the outcome on your behalf.

Obtaining the best outcome for our rate payers means full cooperation with DPTI. It will require some contribution to the formulation of appropriate policy outcomes. It will also require some involvement in community engagement. This will require significant resourcing and will unfortunately put us in the public eye on the same page as the Government.

We risk being tainted by appearing on side with the Government’s broad brush approach. This is an approach which has been seen as confrontational.

Our approach is to take a more empathetic local approach bringing our citizens along with us rather than in opposition. Our forward DPA program (of some 5 years) is being ignored by the Minister however as it is taking too long. Ensuring detail always does of course.

Full cooperation will test our resources and significantly impact on our budget. Doing nothing and divorcing ourselves from the process will mean we abrogate our responsibility to our citizens by vesting complete control in the hands of the Government.

We have already felt the impact of his decision. We have had to divert the focus of our senior planner to address his request for observations from us and to advise how we might assist them. He required this from us with minimal time to respond.

This has meant we have delayed bringing our General DPA to a point where it can be consulted with publically. Returning DPA 2 to the public arena has also been delayed.

The next challenge is how much do we participate in their DPA with our have limited resources.

We can choose to co-operate fully including in the public consultation process. We can choose to simply respond from a council point of view as part of the public consultation process. or we can do nothing I guess.

Whatever we choose on Monday night there will be implications on our budget.

I will report on what decision we make after the minutes of the Council meeting are made available.