In his 20 years of working in development control, Geoff Metcalfe has seen many successful greenfield residential developments.
He has also seen a lot of “bad developments”, the ongoing maintenance of which have proved a financial drain on the councils that approved them.
The key to achieving the former and avoiding the latter was good planning, according to the experienced engineering development coordinator and former IPWEA NSW board member.
Although it may seem like a common-sense approach, the sheer volume of elements involved in complex developments can create an impediment to councils and development engineers when assessing development applications and imposing conditions of consent.
“I’ve seen lots of good examples and I’ve seen a lot of bad developments,” Mr Metcalf said.
“Developments such as residential communities need to address a wide range of environmental, social and economic issues.
“Good planning is critical.”
A development control plan that provided detailed planning and design guidelines was vital, Mr Metcalfe said.
“That’s where council has a big impact on a greenfield site,” he said.
“They can plan for the future - it’s where we have an input into the width of the road, what sort of cycle ways will go in, what sort of open space there will be.”
Mr Metcalfe said imposing stringent conditions of consent on developers, and not allowing those to be “watered down” was also important.
“The council’s got to stand their ground,” he said.
During his time with Port Macquarie Hastings Council, Mr Metcalfe was involved in the latter stages of the Settlement Shores development at Port Macquarie.
“The Settlement Shores canal development had very strict conditions of consent on the developer,” he said.
“The development approval for the whole complex took more than 25 years with many DAs and associated approvals from various government bodies.
“This has provided a great outcome, as the last canal development to be ever approved in New South Wales on land that was originally flood-affected farmland.
“Many lessons were learnt over the many years, especially the inheritance of and funding mechanism for the maintenance requirements by the council.
“Once the developer goes and everything’s gone, (the council) needs to make sure (the development) is not going to fall apart.”
Mr Metcalfe said the inspection process was also critical during the construction phases of residential communities, as was community consultation.
“This day and age there’s a lot of community consultation - the community has a major role in feedback (on a development),” he said.
Mr Metcalfe recently presented at an IPWEA NSW Development Engineers Seminar, which was designed to enhance participants’ skills and knowledge to carry out assessment of building and development proposals.
Tips for councils assessing development applications:
Good policy and procedures must be in place.
Stringent conditions of consent must be attached to development approvals.
It is vital sufficient bond money is collected from the developer to cover outstanding work on public land during the development phase, which will cover bankruptcy or insolvency.
All engineering plans to go on public property are certified by a practising professional civil consultant that they are in accordance with the specifications set down by the council.
The contractor responsible for the infrastructure construction should be fully accredited by the council for any work undertaken and have limited liability insurance.
Stringent inspection procedure and protocol with hold points should be mandatory before construction proceeds to the next level.