MidCoast Council DA process quicker on average

Published on 15 August 2023

More than $300 million worth of development was approved by MidCoast Council during 2022-23, with approvals finalised in an average time 10 days less than comparable regional councils.

MidCoast Council is grouped amongst 36 Regional City Councils to compare data.

The group includes Lake Macquarie, Wollongong, Newcastle, Tweed, Port Macquarie and Shoalhaven City Councils.

The average development application processing time in this group for the 2022/23 period was 98 days. MidCoast Council recorded an average time of 88 days.

The approvals finalised during the same period enabled work valued at $376,651,686.66.

Director of Liveable Communities, Paul De Szell, said that application processing has supported the local economy which has a flow on to the community.

“A lot of that money has gone back into the community through local builders and tradies,” he said.

“It’s an important part of the area’s economic growth and we are proud to be ahead of the ball when it comes to timeframes and making the process as simple as possible for homeowners, renovators and builders.”

MidCoast Council have a section of their website dedicated to the DA process.

It includes an application tracker where you can access your application, search a property’s development history or a development consent.

You can make an online submission where you can raise issues and indicate your support or opposition to a development application during the exhibition period.

Planning alerts allow interested members of the community to subscribe for notifications on applications lodged in the community.

“We have tried to make the website as user friendly as possible for you to get all the information about DAs that you need. We are continuing to implement improvements to the website all the time,” Mr De Szell said.

For queries about development applications give Council a call on 7955 7777 or go to www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/development-application