Local Planning Panel

Local Planning Panels

Hunters Hill Local Planning Panel (LPP) makes decisions on sensitive, complex and high-value DAs that come before Council, with council staff, under delegation, still determining the more straight forward DAs.

The LPP consists of a chair and two independent experts appointed by Council from a Minister-endorsed pool of independent, qualified people, plus a community representative.

Independent expert members are required to have expertise in one or more of the following fields: planning, architecture, heritage, the environment, urban design, economics, traffic and transport, law, engineering, tourism, or government and public administration.

Panel chairs are required to have expertise in law or government and public administration.

Community representatives appointed to a local planning panel are not required to have planning expertise. The role of the community representative is to ensure that local insights and knowledge are considered as part of the panel’s decision-making.

Councillors, property developers and real estate agents are ineligible to be panel members.

At the Ordinary Council Meeting held on 21 June 2021, the Council resolved to constitute a new Local Planning Panel in accordance with NSW Government guidelines. The members are listed below. Full minutes of the meeting are available on the website under Council Meeting and Reports. The appointments of the Chairs are valid until the 29 February 2024 and the appointments of the independent experts and community representatives are valid until 28 February 2022.

Who is on the Hunters Hill Local Planning Panel?

Chairs

Ms Lesley Finn

Mr Peter Tomasetti SC (alternate)

Professor Peter Webber (alternate)

Expert Panel Members:
Sheridan Burke
David Logan
Peter Watts
John McInerney
Ann Warr

Community Representatives:
Meredith Sheil
Virginia Wise
Phillip Hart
Barry Buffier

Each meeting comprises a Chair, two Expert Members and one Community Representative.

When are the meetings held?

The LPP meetings are held each month, the dates of which can be found on Council’s website under Development – Development Applications.

Who is notified?

If a Development Application is to be discussed at the meeting the applicant and any people who have made submissions are notified one week prior to the meeting and the agenda including the Council Officer’s report are published on Council’s website to view.

The applicant and those who made a submission are given an opportunity to speak at the meeting, if you do wish to speak, a Permission to Speak form must be completed and submitted to Council no later than noon on the Tuesday immediately prior to the meeting.

Procedure of the meeting

As of the 3rd meeting of the Local Planning Panel, Council records audio and video of the meeting, as well as live-streaming. Recordings can be found on Council’s YouTube Channel.

Those who have lodged Permission to Speak forms that have been accepted are invited to speak by the Chair for a maximum of three minutes.

To access the Permission to Speak form click here