Despite the protestations of developers and their flagbearers, the Property Council and estate agents, it is extremely unusual to see a member of a planning authority vote against an application for a planning permit.

Last night (July 13, 2020) the Glenorchy Planning Authority – Aldermen Dunsby, Johnston, Ryan, Sims and Thomas – came close to rejecting an application by an industrial business in Granton to extend their working hours. Currently they start at 7am Monday to Friday. They wish to start at 5.45am. The final decision to approve will not please nearby residents (some as close as 100m away) who have complained about noise issues in the past.

But as the mayor very clearly expressed when speaking to the motion – they cannot consider past behaviour of applicants in making a decision.

The truth of her statement must been particularly galling to the three aldermen – Aldermen Dunsby, Ryan and Sims – who clearly had little faith, having learnt of past noise complaints, that the applicant’s future behaviour would be any better than in the past.

The planning officer in assessing the application had acknowledged the noise issue, and added a condition to the recommended permit.

The condition was, in effect, that the applicant would do the right thing noise-wise for the first six weeks. The three aldermen found this inadequate. After an extended discussion, the meeting conjured up an additional condition that ensures that noise levels are acceptable long-term but the three were still not satisfied.

When time came for the mayor to call for mover and seconder, the situation became a little tense. After some silence the deputy mayor moved the amended recommendations. The mayor called for a seconder and, receiving no response, directly asked the three if they wished to second the motion; none did. The mayor after checking meeting procedure seconded the motion herself to allow discussion to proceed and have a decision (hopefully) made.

What is more, Alderman Dunsby very pointedly asked the mayor, moments before the mayor was about to call for a vote, what would happen if the motion was rejected. She was then told what she should already have known given she has been a member of the authority for over two years, and it appears that persuaded her to vote for the motion when all indications prior to that were that she would oppose it.

Despite speaking passionately, it is somewhat disappointing that none of the three seemed to anticipate that the application might be rejected or not voted on, and did not prepare for that possibility with an alternative rejection motion, perhaps something like

“That pursuant to the Glenorchy Interim Planning Scheme 2015, Council refuses a permit for increased hours of operation (manufacturing and processing) at 1 Whitestone Drive, Granton, for the following reason: The proposal will have an unacceptable impact upon residential amenity on land within a residential zone by virtue of increased noise emissions .”

As a final aside, given the logic behind the assessment of this application, there is little stopping the applicant from continuing to extend working hours incrementally hour by hour all the way up to 24-7.

All in all, a very interesting night at the office for the planning authority.