15 August 2019 - HLPP

Good morning. I'd like to welcome you to this meeting of the Hawkesbury Local Planning Panel. Today's date is the 15th of August 2019. This panel has been appointed by the Minister for Planning and the Council to determine certain types of development applications and modifications of consent, which are on the agenda of the business paper in accordance with Code of Conduct governing the panel and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. My name is Steve Kennedy, and I am the Chair of today's panel. The other panellists with me today are, to my left, Mr Paul Rogers, Community Representative, and to my right, Ms Juliet Grant and Ms Deborah Sutherland, who are both expert panel members. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land, the Dharug people, their elders past and present.

Members of the public attending the meeting are advised that in the event of an emergency, you'll be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit, following the guidance of the warden. This meeting is being audio recorded and is available on podcast from the Council website. In the terms of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, this may involve the recording of personal information provided at the meeting. The recordings are made to assist staff in compiling the minutes of the meeting. The provision of any information that is recorded is voluntary. If any person does not wish to be recorded, they should not address or request to address the meeting. For the benefit of people who are attending the Hawkesbury Planning Panel, it is expected that you will refrain from making any insult, allegation or personal reflection against any person present or not at this meeting.

This request relates to both your address to the meeting and any answers given in response to questions from the panel. The recordings may be made available to other persons where such access is in accordance with the relevant regulations. The recordings are stored on Council's record management system. Any part of this meeting that is held in a closed session will not be recorded. At today's meeting, the panel will consider and determine one development application which has been assessed and reported on by Council staff. The Council has undertaken a site inspection earlier today for the development application and has, upon request, visited—well, we didn't actually visit any adjoining properties because it wasn't appropriate.

Consideration of applications will now be undertaken in the order of the agenda. Prior to that matter, there was an item one, which is related to pecuniary interest returns. I'll come to that in a second. Prior to that, however, I'd like to just confirm that I have no conflict of interest. I have received conflict of interest forms from each of the panel members, which I will now hand up, and I'll ask each of the panel members whether they have any conflict of interest with regards to this matter.

Mr Rogers? No conflict of interest. Thank you.

No conflict. As required by the Code of Conduct. Panelists are required to disclose any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in relation to any matter on today's agenda to be considered by the panel. Those forms are what we have now completed.

In addition to the conflict of interest disclosures, all panelists are also required to complete, under the Code of Conduct, an annual written disclosure of pecuniary interest. These disclosures must be completed on the prescribed form and returned to the chairperson. What I'm going to do now, because there is only one matter, we have one person registered to speak, so that's the matter we will go to. But prior to that, as I said, item one on the agenda was pecuniary interest returns. Hawkesbury Local Planning Panel members, as I have said, are required by the Code of Conduct to complete a pecuniary interest and other matters return, identifying any pecuniary or other types of interests that they hold at their date of commencement as an HLPP member.

The return forms for all HLPP members have recently been lodged with Council on behalf of the chair, and the returns are now tabled at the HLPP meeting. There's a recommendation that section 4.17B, pecuniary interest forms be received and noted, and that section 4.17B pecuniary interest returns be made available on Council's website. So I'm just going to ask if there's any discussion on that. Okay, so voting on that. In favour, unanimously, 4-0. That matter has been decided. We now—

We now move to item two on the agenda, which is DA 0281/18 for 20 North Street, Windsor, and is for alterations and additions to a dwelling house and swimming pool to a dwelling house at 20 North Street, Windsor. There is a recommendation for approval. We have one person registered to speak, Rebecca Zirk, if you would like to come forward, please. Press the button. Before you start, Ms Zirk, the recommendation is for approval. Have you read the recommendation? Yes. If you are generally happy with it, then you can just tell us that. If you have particular items that you wish to address, then please do so.

Okay. Well, obviously we agree with the recommendation. There are just two issues in regards to two of the consent conditions. Those conditions relate to condition two, which requires some amendments, some modifications to the internal layout of the existing cottage, as well as the blocking off of a door. The modifications to the internal layout will require the removal of a wall, which will then result in access to the bathroom from bedroom four being through bedroom five. So we don't necessarily— it's not a good layout, so we don't agree with that. And the other one is, well, the purpose of that condition is to prevent— That structure being used as a separate domicile. Now we feel that condition 70 addresses that.

The other one is condition 11, which requires the provision of a baseline historical and archaeological assessment. And as you would have seen this morning from your site visit, there's already been a lot of excavation works that were undertaken in relation to the construction of the outbuilding. The conditions in relation to the outbuilding didn't require a study. And the house, during those excavation works, there's nothing that's been discovered. So we feel conditions 12 and 13 cover that.

So if I understand you asking that condition 2 be deleted.

Yes

And that condition 11 be deleted. Correct. Okay. Is there anything else you wish to say?

No, thank you.

So before you go, do any of the panel members have any questions?

So just quickly with the archaeological stuff, the study, you said you did a dig before For the shed. Which is not near where the house is though, so it's a different part of the site. That's

Right. But there hasn't been anything discovered today. And conditions 12 and 13, which require that any work stop if any items are discovered, pretty well covers condition 11 really.

They’re meant to go together, I think. 11, 12 and 13.

12 and 13, yeah.

11 because 12 doesn’t actually require you to use an archaeologist.

No. No

Just to stop work. Just to stop work if anything is discovered. Yeah, so I think it goes—they have to, they all go together. 11. Is that—that’s how I read the conditions anyway.

Conditions 12 and 13 are generally standard conditions that are generally included in these types of approvals, without the need for a study being undertaken.

Okay. Are there any more questions to put to...?

Mr—what amount of study has been undertaken at the moment? You’re asking for the deletion of 11, and I’m taken by the word ‘potential archaeology’. So how extensive over the site has the work that you—I’m assuming that a preliminary report has been prepared— and so how. So what’s the evidence base that you’re relying on to put to us that 11 should be deleted?

Well, basically with the excavation works that have been undertaken at the moment, nothing’s been found. The site hasn’t been disturbed for— I don’t think ever.

But are those works that have been undertaken, are they of an archaeological nature or simply—

No, no, no, just excavation works in relation to the...

So not undertaken by trained individuals looking. So would you agree that the word ‘potential’, certainly as a safeguard. You can't actually say there is or there isn't, but the condition actually talks about the potential archaeological value. Would you not agree that the word potential has some merit in itself in terms of planning?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Given that you've asked us to reconsider two conditions, we're going to adjourn the meeting, go into another room, have an internal discussion, and then come back and advise you. Thank you. So I'm adjourning the meeting whilst we do that.

Thank you. Thank you for your patience. We've had a discussion between ourselves. We've sought some advice from council staff and some clarifications, and we've come to a decision. The decision is that we will approve the application. We will make one change to the conditions, and that change will be that item 2B, requiring the removal of the wall, is deleted. There was discussion about item 2A, and there was discussion about item 11. The advice is that the condition regarding the potential archaeology is a recommendation of the Department of Office Environment and Heritage and is a standard thing that they require us to do, so we've retained that. The other advice is that given the nature of the site, the risks associated with the site, then the idea of ensuring that there is a single dwelling on this site is of importance in terms of long-term safety.

So on that basis, we are proposing that the application be approved, sorry, we are proposing the application be approved, subject to condition 2A having the word and deleted , the last word and deleted, and condition 2B being deleted. I ask everybody to vote on that. We are all in agreement. The voting is 4-0 in the affirmative. The reasons for the determination are that the work is permissible and that the panel accepts that the proposed works offer a higher level of safety and security for occupants of the site in the occasion of a flood. Thank you. That I close the meeting. Thank you very much. The time is 10 minutes past 11.