Metro Central JDAP and community outcomes

Journalist background: The six councils in the Metro Central JDAP have been asked for a response on this (South Perth, Vic Park, Canning, Bayswater, Melville and Belmont).
Just wondering if your respective local governments would be willing to comment on Development Assessment Panels and providing better community outcomes. I'm contacting the six local governments within the Metro Central JDAP area.

The reason I ask is City of Belmont has a motion at its next council meeting requesting a comprehensive review of the operation and structure of Development Assessment Panels (DAPs) in Western Australia. The premise of the report is that "the attitude by DAPs towards local government and its Officers has been disappointing, reflecting a lack of appreciation and respect for the extensive strategic work and community engagement that has been done".

Refer to page 82 for the full agenda item.

Please attribute the following comments to City of South Perth CEO Geoff Glass:

Would administration be supportive of a review of the DAP operation and structure? Why/why not?
The City believes that a review of DAP operations is both timely and necessary and would join with other Local Authorities in supporting for a review of their current operations and functioning.

Have DAP decisions previously undermined the strategic thought behind your respective local government's local planning scheme?
The City has a highly developed town planning statutory framework and a number of DAP decisions have been made at times contrary to recommendations of the City’s staff. Certain of these DAP approved developments are of a scale more appropriate in higher zoned areas and to this extent could be regarded as undermining the strategic intent of the City’s Town Planning Scheme.

What changes would you recommend to the operation of DAPs?
Amongst the operational changes that would be recommended are the following:

Changing the composition of the DAP so that local elected members have equal numbers with professional members.

Changing the regulations to allow the responsible authority to extend the timeframes for consideration of the application without the approval of the applicant. Providing for more relevant criteria for eligibility of applications to be considered by DAP, that is, a simple dollar value is not considered to be a good criteria for this.