An online housing approval system will reduce approval times for new homes in Coffs Harbour City Council to around a week.
The approval system was set up after Council was selected to participate in the NSW Electronic Housing Code (EHC) project.
The NSW Government and the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW established the EHC to speed up approvals for complying developments, which meet local zoning and building regulations.
"This will mean that mum and dad builders, developers and architects will be able to put their plans forward from their desks or lounge rooms and get approval in a matter of days." Coffs Harbour City Council Mayor Keith Rhoades said.
"It will speed up the whole process and save people a lot of time and money."
The EHC will provide:
- faster access to user-friendly information on NSW housing, commercial and industrial codes
- consistency and transparency in the complying development application process
- the ability to lodge and track applications online
- 24 hour access to a faster application process.
Council’s Director of Land Use Health and Development Chris Chapman, said people could go online to see if their project was a complying or exempt development, meaning they could proceed without lodging a Development Application.
"As well as benefiting the community and industry, it will cut down the amount of staff time involved in assessments."
Residents of the 10 councils already using the EHC can obtain online housing approvals in less than a week – as opposed to the state average of 63 days processing time.
Coffs Harbour City Council is in the preliminary stages of the project, which will be implemented over the next two years.