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Waverley Local Planning Panel (WLPP)

Notice Regarding Waverley Local Planning Panel

To comply with the public health restrictions put in place by the Federal and NSW Government in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, modified operational procedures have been put in place for the Waverley Local Planning meetings.

The meetings as scheduled below will be held online with amended operational procedures until further notice.

The meeting dates scheduled for 2021

Agendas: Meeting agendas, including reports, can be viewed on this website from the Wednesday afternoon prior to the meeting.

Minutes: Meeting minutes should be available on this webpage within 2 days after the Panel meeting.

About the Waverley Local Planning Panel

What is the Waverley Local Planning Panel?

The Waverley Local Planning Panel determines significant DAs (as defined by the criteria set by the Minister) in the Waverley LGA. This includes DAs such as new Residential Flat Buildings, the demolition of a heritage item, development which has a significant number of unique objections, a departure to a statutory development standard greater than 10%, applications proposing a planning agreement or an identified conflict of interest.

The Panel is made up of a pool of planning experts, independent of Council, who meet monthly. Councillors are no longer be involved in the decision-making process for determining those DAs, allowing them more time to focus on strategic planning issues, such as the planning controls that underpin DA decisions.

Panel members

The Panel members are independent of Council. Each Panel will consist of a specialist from the disciplines of Architecture, Urban Design, Town Planning, Heritage and Planning Law as well as elected community representatives.  The Panel members will be introduced at the meeting. Panel members are rotated each month from a pool of selected experts.

How does the Local Planning Panel work?

The applicant and those who provided a submission to the Development Application will be invited to attend the Panel meeting. Included in the letter is an invitation to register to address the panel members at the formal meeting.

The report on the DA is prepared by Council’s Development & Building Unit (DBU) for consideration and includes a full assessment of the proposal, the objections made and a recommendation. Prior to the formal meeting, Panel members have read the assessment report and submissions on the agenda.

The formal meeting typically begins between 11am – 12noon. The Panel Chairperson opens the meeting and introduces the Panel members. The order of business is set out in the agenda. Copies of the agenda are available from this web page.

The quorum for a meeting of the Panel is three members. Council staff will attend to provide technical advice on Council’s controls or answer questions if required.  As each item is referred to, the objectors are invited to speak for three minutes. The applicant will then be invited to respond. The Panel members may ask questions of the addressees.

Speakers should bear in mind that the Panel members have had the report and submissions for a few days before the meeting and it is not necessary to repeat information that has been provided in the report.

Once all the registered speakers have addressed the Panel on the item, the Panel will move to the next item on the agenda and continue to receive speakers until all items on the agenda have been heard. The meeting will then officially close and the Panel will move to a closed session to deliberate and determine each item. Members of the public will not be able to participate in this part of the meeting.

Minutes of the meeting will generally be available for viewing from Council’s website within 2 days of the meeting.

Addressing the Panel

If you wish to address the Panel regarding an item on the agenda, you must first register with the Panel Coordinator by 5pm the Monday prior to the meeting. To register, please email WLPP@waverley.nsw.gov.au. Registrations MUST be in writing and will not be accepted via phone.

You must already have lodged a written submission on the Development Application (DA) you wish to address. Unless the Panel otherwise permits, no resident, objector, applicant or supporter may speak for more than 3 minutes in respect of any one matter. A person is not entitled to be legally represented at any meeting of the Panel unless the Chair grants permission in any particular case. If you address the Panel, your name will be included in the minutes of the meeting.

Speakers for each agenda item will be limited to:

• 1 speaker for the applicant and
• 3 speakers who provided a submission to the DA. If there are more than 3 speakers that register an interest to address the Panel in the online meeting, the Chair will determine who those accepted speakers are. Typically these will be those most affected by the proposal. Where common issues are shared between objectors, is it recommended that one person register to speak on behalf of those parties. The Chair has discretion to allow additional speakers.

Once confirmed as a registered speaker, a link and instructions will be sent to you to join the online WLPP meeting, including the Operational Guidelines. Instructions will be sent 24 hours before the meeting.

The meeting will be recorded and available on Council’s website the day after the meeting.

Site Inspections

Panel members will only inspect the subject site (before the public meeting) where deemed necessary by the Chair to assist in their assessment. Any site inspections will be conducted accordance with the public health restrictions and guidelines.

Panel Archive

On 1 July 2013, the Independent Hearing & Assessment Panel (IHAP) was superseded by the Waverley Development Assessment Panel (WDAP) which was re-named the Waverley Local Planning Panel on 22 June 2018.

You can still view the agendas and minutes of WDAP and WLPP meetings from previous years by accessing the archive.