Councils are taking longer to approve big developments.

The average time to process a DA worth between $5 million and $20 million increased from 230 days to 257 days in 2009-10 over the previous year.

The time for applications worth more than $20 million remains well above 300 days – much higher than three years ago.

Part of the rationale behind introducing fast-track approvals for simple developments was so councils could devote more time to major developments and process them faster.

”The situation has deteriorated for those wanting to invest large sums in NSW,” says Aaron Gadiel, chief executive of the Urban Taskforce which represents developers.

Councils that took the longest time to process developments between $5 million and $20 million were Singleton (1167 days), Burwood (940), Wingecarribee (687), Bega Valley (595) and Tweed (589). For projects worth more than $20 million they were Rockdale (894 days), Wyong (766), Lake Macquarie (554), Bankstown (553), Blacktown (521) and Tweed (497 days).

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