Lismore City Council has drastically slashed processing times for residential Development Application from around 40 days to between five and ten days.
Council's Head of Planning and Environment Graham Snow said Council was dedicated to making Lismore easy to do business with and attract more investment in the city.
"We have adopted a Fast Track System this year that so far has supported the approval of $7.5 million worth of residential developments in the first three months of the year.
"It really is what is old is new again. This Council, and many Councils in NSW, years ago had a fast-track system which looked at low and medium-risk Development Applications and found pathways to get them progressed quicker," he said.
"After the Minns Government challenged all councils to speed up the approval process, we reviewed the old fast track system and re-introduced with a more contemporary model.
"We are now seeing low-risk applications processed within five and ten working days, which is an incredible turnaround from about 40 days during the COVID-development boom."
Mr Snow said under the previous system, DAs would be assessed as they were submitted. This meant if one DA required a more thorough assessment and additional reports, it would slow all other DAs in the queue behind it.
"Under the fast-track system, we are using a risk weighting to triage applications when they first come in so that we can identify the low-risk ones and excise them from the queue and assess them quicker.
