Planning and Tasmanian councils
Councils work closely with their local areas and manage development to deliver liveable communities now and into the future.
Tasmania’s Resource Management and Planning System (RMPS) has served us well since its introduction in the early 1990s. At its core, it has a set of objectives that have been central to our way of life and the strong economy Tasmania has enjoyed.
These objectives include sustainable development of our natural and physical resources, public involvement in resource management and planning, facilitating economic development following these objectives, and importantly, the sharing of responsibility for resource management and planning between the different spheres of government, the community and industry.
However, successive state governments have failed to maintain the important strategic aspects of our planning system, with too greater a focus on regulation, involving initiatives such as the Statewide Planning Scheme and the more recent red tape reduction agenda.
Local government supports a process of continuous improvement in our planning and development system.
Did you know?
Exceeding application timeframes
Tasmanian councils are on average determining development applications well within the statutory timeframes of 28 days for permitted developments and 42 days for discretionary developments.
Outperforming other states
Tasmanian development assessment timeframes are one of the best in the country, with Victoria being 70 days, NSW 84 days, WA 60 or 90 days, SA 8 weeks or 12 for subdivision and QLD 40 business days.
Local community voice
Council strategic planning processes ensure the needs of local communities and key stakeholders are taken into account.
How LGAT advocates for Tasmanian councils
For many years we have been calling on the Tasmanian Government to establish the critical strategic foundations of our planning system, the Tasmanian Planning Policies.
These, and the urgently needed updating of our Regional Land Use Strategies, will provide the missing clarity on what governments and the community desire for their local areas and will significantly help drive any reforms needed in our regulatory system to achieve this.