The NSW Government has announced nearly $10 million to enhance its ePlanning platform and ensure all councils can get online from July 1 onwards. The online platform allows homeowners and businesses to lodge their development applications online and track them in real-time. It is also resulting in faster DA processing times for local councils. Thirty-seven councils are already successfully using ePlanning to process DAs and it has already helped slash processing times by up to 50 per cent. In fact Cessnock City Council has reduced processing times from 80 to 38 days. The $9.7 million in funding will deliver important upgrades to enhance the system and ensure it can meet demand once all 128 councils are using it by July 2021. On 1 July 2020 all councils across Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast and Illawarra will be required to start accepting and processing DAs, complying development certificates and post-consent certificates via the NSW Planning Portal. It will be mandatory for all greater metropolitan councils to process all applications via ePlanning by the end of 2020. The remaining councils must process all applications through the NSW Planning Portal by 1 July 2021.
