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Parramatta City Council
| CITY DEVELOPMENT | 26 March 2007 |
ITEM NUMBER 08.05
SUBJECT |
Draft Child Care Centres Development Control Plan. |
REFERENCE |
F2006/00296 |
REPORT OF |
Manager Land Use and Transport Planning (OG 11/2007) |
PURPOSE
This report presents the draft Child Care Centres Development Control Plan (DCP) and the Child Care Centre Planning Study and recommends Council adopt both documents for the purpose of public exhibition.
RECOMMENDATION
(a) That Council adopt the draft Parramatta Child Care Centres Development Control Plan (DCP) and the Parramatta Child Care Centre Planning Study as attached to this report as Attachments 2 and 3 respectively for the purpose of public exhibition;
(b) That the public exhibition include letters of notification to industry experts and stakeholders as described in the detailed submission to this report;
(c) That the matter be reported to Council after the public exhibition for finalisation including any amendments that arise from the exhibition process or Council's further consideration of the draft DCP; and
(d) That once the draft Development Control Plan takes effect, it be applied to all development applications for child care centres that were lodged on or after the date of commencement of the public exhibition period.
BACKGROUND
1. Council considered the matter at its meeting on 27 February and resolved to defer it pending a workshop to discuss the issues raised by Councillors. A workshop was held on Wednesday 7 March 2007 with Councillors, staff from Council’s Land Use and Transport Planning Unit and Council’s consultant.
2. Included as Attachment 4 is a table summarising the issues raised by Councillors at the Council Meeting on 27 February 2007 and at the Councillor workshop. The table includes a response to the issues provided by staff. In response to concerns raised by Councillors, several changes have been made to the draft DCP. These are described below.
ISSUES
3. Changes have been made to the latest version of the draft DCP in response to issues raised by Councillors at its meeting on 27 February 2007 and the subsequent Councillor workshop held on 7 March 2007 as follows:
(a) The savings provision has been deleted. Council is not obliged to include a savings provision in a DCP. Under section 79C of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, a draft DCP is not a matter for consideration. It only becomes a matter for consideration upon taking effect. This would not preclude Council from applying the DCP to existing applications once it comes into effect. In place of a savings provision, it is recommended that Council make a specific resolution that addresses the application of the DCP upon its taking effect. It is recommended that Council apply the DCP to all outstanding applications that were lodged on or after the date of the commencement of public exhibition. This approach will balance the need for fairness to applicants who have had an application with Council for some time, while ensuring that newer applications that were submitted after the draft DCP was on public record are required to comply with the DCP.
(b) In order to improve and clarify the grammar, the first sentence in section 2.3.1 on page 8 has been deleted and replaced with: “A formal development application with accompanying building plans is required to be submitted for proposals for new child care centres or alterations and additions to existing child care centres.”
(c) The requirements for technical assessments will be amended to require an air quality assessment for centres that are “adjacent” a railway or a major road, instead of those that “front” a railway or major road.
(d) The list of technical assessments on page 11 has been amended to include reference to Aboriginal Heritage Assessments, Heritage Impact Statements and Archaeological Assessments.
(e) The objectives for the site selection provisions in section 3.1.1 have been amended to include the following objective: “To discourage the location of child care centres in locations where they will cause unreasonable levels of disruption to the existing amenity of residential areas.”
(f) A new heading has been included on page 15 in order to separately list those sites where Council will not support the establishment of child care centres. These include sites on major roads, battle-axe lots, cul-de-sacs, steep sites, contaminated sites and sites subject to air and noise pollution.
(g) A new provision has been included on page 16 relating to sites within proximity to another existing or approved centre to read as follows: “Council will not support the location of child care centres on land within close proximity to another existing or approved centre in a residential zone unless it can be demonstrated that the cumulative impacts relating to traffic generation, on-street car parking and noise generation are within levels normally associated with similar urban environments.”
(h) A new objective has been included in section 3.2.1 regarding residential zones as follows: “To ensure that child care centres do not undermine or compromise the amenity of residential areas.”
(i) The 4th bullet point on page 22 does not allow basement car parking in the Residential 2(a) or the R2 Low Density Residential zones except where slope conditions necessitate one. This provision has been amended to delete the circumstances for exceptions.
(j) Additional wording has been included in the section, “Pedestrian Access Design” to require pedestrian access from all car spaces to the child care centre building.
(k) On page 25, the requirement that a statement be submitted certifying that the development will not cause a noise nuisance, is to be amended to clarify that such statement is to be submitted by a certified acoustic consultant.
4. In addition to the above changes, while the draft DCP is on exhibition, specialist advice will be sought on the two issues below:
(a) Concern was raised at the Councillor workshop on 7 March 2007 that the DCP should make provision for the disposal of nappies and should ensure that nappy disposal areas do not cause offence to neighbours. Staff from Council’s Land Use and Planning Unit are currently consulting with Council’s Environment and Health experts to seek advice on the specific issues of disposal of nappies including receptacles, frequency of garbage collection and associated issues; and
(b) Concern was also raised at the workshop that the DCP would be more effective if it prescribed some acoustic measures up front for eg. fence treatment. Staff will obtain specialist acoustic advice on this matter during the exhibition of the draft DCP.
5. Advice on both of these issues will be provided to Council when it considers the results of public exhibition. Minor changes of this nature are able to be made to the DCP without necessitating re-exhibition.
CONSULTATION
6. The preparation of the Planning Study and the draft DCP has involved significant internal consultation with staff from Council’s Development Unit, the Social and Community Services Unit and the Traffic and Transport Services Unit. A Councillor workshop was held on 6 December, 2006 to provide Councillors with background information and to seek their input to the draft DCP. A preliminary version of the draft DCP was circulated to all Councillors in January 2007, with two Councillors providing feedback on the document. A second Councillor workshop was held on 7 March 2007 to discuss the provisions of the draft DCP.
7. The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000, requires that a draft DCP be exhibited for a minimum of 28 days with a public notice to be published in the local newspapers. In addition to the statutory requirements, it is also proposed that notification letters be forwarded to industry experts and stakeholders as outlined in the attached detailed submission.
TIMING
8. The public exhibition of the Planning Study and the draft DCP will commence approximately 10 days after Council adopt the draft documents to allow for the submission of a notice in the local newspapers. The DCP will be exhibited for 28 days, following which it will be reported to Council for consideration of submissions. The DCP will subsequently come into effect when Council adopts the DCP and publishes a notice advising of its adoption.
Felicity Roberts Marcelo Occhiuzzi
Project Officer Manager
Land use and Transport Planning Land use and Transport Planning
ATTACHMENTS
Refer Attachment/s 161 scanned page/s
1. Detailed Submission - 11 pages.
2. Draft Child Care Centres Development Control Plan - 35 pages.
3. Draft Parramatta Child Care Centre Planning Study - 107 pages.
4. Table summarising concerns previously raised by Councillor - 8 pages.
   
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