Bendigo council has thrown its support behind a move which would shift the onus onto developers and homeowners to pay for its planning approval process and could see it recoup upwards of $500,000 a year.  

The City of Greater Bendigo voted this week to send a submission of support for the state government’s review of planning and subdivision fees which would increase the overall proportion applicants pay for the process from an estimated 32 per cent to 67 per cent. 

Councillor Rod Campbell described the proposed changes as a win for ratepayers. 

“People who are getting the benefits of planning approvals should be paying more towards the approvals themselves,” Cr Campbell said.

“In the past approvals have been largely supported by funds from ratepayers, now this proposal changes the thrust of that so, instead of community paying 68 per cent and applicant paying 32 per cent, the reverse almost is the case.

“And if someone is proposing an amendment to a planning scheme for private benefit then they should be paying a great deal more.

“In terms of natural justice – that seems pretty reasonable.”

Statutory Planning manager Ross Douglas said the council budget this year allocated $2.7 million towards reviewing planning applications. 

“As it is only proposed to introduce a fee structure, it is only possible to estimate the potential income the city would receive,” he said. 

“If applicants were required to pay 67 per cent of the costs associated with having their planning permit applications reviewed, the city expects it would receive approximately $500,000 more than it does now, so ratepayers would be subsidising the service less.”

The proposed changes would see some categories of applications – particularly those by bigger developers –foot an increase of up to 1330 per cent of the approval bill. Other, simple applications would see some homeowners pay at least 70 per cent less. 

Under the proposed changes ‘use only’ applications which relate to the use of a building would see an increase by 147 per cent, from the current $502 to a proposed $1,241.

The amount an applicant pays to amend a planning scheme could increase by as much as 1330 per cent, from the current $2,918 to between $18,010 and $41,792. Such amendments are often required by developers to rezone land to allow for commercial or real estate developments. 

Some simple applications which can be done within 10 days and do not need to be advertised – such as changing the configuration of a driveway – would decrease 72 per cent from $502 to $141. 

However, in its regulatory impact statement, the state government provides a number of examples in which applicants would pay more for small-scale applications. Among them are the following:

The review came on the back of rate capping implemented this year. 

Want to have your say on the proposed changes? Contact the reporter on joseph.hinchliffe@fairfaxmedia.com.au