To whom it may concern,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2024.
YIMBY Hobart was established to advocate for:
Housing abundance: More housing of all types where people want to live.
A city for people at all ages and stages, of all means and abilities: Our city and suburbs should reflect the diversity of the community as a whole.
Better access for everyone: Being an active participant in our city should not rely on owning a car.
YIMBY Hobart’s interest in the draft bill primarily relates to the impact of the proposed mechanism on the supply of housing, particularly medium-density and social/affordable developments. Despite the draft bill’s potential utility in expediting approval of select housing developments, YIMBY Hobart cannot support the bill as drafted.
The State Planning Office website makes clear the purpose of establishing a Development Activity Panel mechanism is to “help ‘take the politics out of planning’ for more complex or contentious development applications.” YIMBY Hobart is concerned that using the urgent need to increase the rate of housing construction as a rationale for much broader, and likely contentious, changes to the planning scheme risks unnecessarily politicising housing developments. This outcome would run counter to the stated goals of the bill, and risks further complicating approvals.
Further, though there are instances in which councils make bad decisions in relation to contentious housing proposals, we do not believe the broad powers the draft bill gives the responsible Minister are appropriate or proportionate to the scale of the issue.
The Tasmanian Government has invested significant time, effort and money into establishing a single statewide Tasmanian Planning Scheme. Though we believe the Planning Scheme’s current settings are too end-use agnostic, particularly in our city and town-centres, we do not believe establishing broad carve-outs via Development Activity Panels is the solution to this problem.
To build on the Government’s work establishing the Tasmanian Planning Scheme, and increase the rate of housing approvals, we would instead like to see the Tasmanian Government:
Expand and accelerate the work set out in the Improving residential standards in Tasmania draft report, including the adoption of more permissive residential and mixed-use zoning in city centres.
Work with councils to ensure an updated Southern Regional Land-Use Strategy clearly articulates and responds to the need for increased medium-density and infill housing construction in activity centres and along transport corridors.
Despite our concerns about the draft bill’s broad powers, we are strongly supportive of the powers set out in S60AB(1)(a). Social housing developments face greater barriers to approval than private market proposals, and are much more likely to face concerted local opposition. We would like to see powers to expedite and simplify social housing approvals and developments enacted through a standalone act or as an amendment to existing legislation.
Thank you again for the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft bill.
