Managing Conditions in the Certification Process

Context Wyndham is one of the fastest growing municipalities - 4000 lots released in 2015 and more than 5000 lots released in 2017 Continued growth is anticipated and encouraged in order to provide affordable land supply to meet the growing demand in Victoria Rapid growth places pressure on Council resources to meet demand – innovate processing techniques become a must An increasing number of applications coupled with typical local government resource restraints require Council to implement innovative processing procedures to avoid delays in the release of lots and manage demand

Project Aim The ‘Managing Conditions’ Project focused on improving approval and processing times through the certification process. The objectives of the project were: To improve the performance of the existing ‘manage conditions’ function in Spear To reduce processing times for Council officers when managing the certification process To utilise new technology to enable real-time information sharing, improve transparency and overcome unnecessary delays experienced in current approval processes Fully utilising this function for all certification applications Providing regular and consistent updating of the information available to end users (i.e. surveyors, development managers, internal Council officers) in relation to the status of their application To improve transparency between Council and applicants by clarifying outstanding approvals and requirements that may be delaying certification/issue of Statement of Compliance for subdivisions; To improve the technology within the Subdivision Unit with the purchase of a projector (linked into Trapeze) and Surface Pro Tablets to allow for increased collaboration and instantaneous information sharing; To introduce new and innovative processes within Council which will allow the release of lots in a more timely fashion.

Tracking improvements Requirements of planning permits consolidated into a central database Currently have 93 estates tracked in the system Permit information translated into Spear to track application process Over 950 live certification applications in Spear Procedures implemented to ensure ongoing management of permit data in the spreadsheet and Spear Standard conditions saved into Spear for smaller subdivisions Processing mapping completed for new procedures Spear provides a ‘manage conditions’ function which allows applicants to see the permit conditions which apply to their subdivision. This also provides a way to inform the applicants which conditions remain outstanding before a subdivision can be approved. The information to populate these conditions in Spear can be found on planning permits and must be manually entered for each subdivision application in Spear. One of the purposes of this project was to add this information into Spear for all current applications, and to ensure that the status of each condition is up to date (i.e. confirm which conditions have been satisfied and which conditions still have outstanding actions). Two dedicated staff members were brought in to create the database, add into Spear and update procedures as part of the project. This was to limit the impact on existing operations (officer time) although the Subdivisions Team as a whole were involved in developing the project.

Conditions Tracking

Spear Manage Conditions

Technology Improvements Smartscreens Support paperless processes Allow collaboration between officers and applicants Trapeze Allows easy comparison of amended Plans of Subdivision Allows quick mark-ups to be made and shared

Outcomes Reductions in processing times for subdivision approvals Improved reliability for applicants and developers More transparency and improved communication between Council and applicants Improved staff knowledge including permit condition interpretation

Future Opportunities Expand condition management in Spear to include other approvals (such as engineering, landscaping etc.) Further improve processes and reduce timeframes for condition updates Investigate technology integration between Council systems and Spear to automate processes and reduce manual handling