KEY POINTS:
The Whangarei District Council has appointed independent commissioners to hear resource consent applications, Mayor Stan Semenoff saying it is time councillors got out of the business.
Mr Semenoff said he did not believe the current system was transparent enough.
At an extraordinary meeting yesterday, councillors voted in favour of scrapping its judicial committee - comprising three councillors - and using commissioners to decide on resource consents.
Conway Stewart, Giles Bramwell, Alan Watson, Les Simmons and Bill Brown have been appointed as the council's hearing commissioners and given the power to approve non-notified non- complying resource consent applications.
Mr Semenoff said the judicial committee was an adequate system in the days before the local government reform of the late-1980s when issues were simpler and it wasn't as important to have suitably qualified people.
Now resource consent decisions were an integral part of the district's future growth and direction. "To be honest, I don't think it is reasonable to expect newly elected councillors to sit on a committee which has the responsibility of taking the district forward in a sustainable, visionary and affordable way," Mr Semenoff said.
"Councillors are only lay people and because they are elected there is an obvious risk of bias in their decision-making. It can be hard to be impartial if you've got one eye over your shoulder wondering what the voters will think.
"Under the previous system, how could you get total transparency? You couldn't."
The professional commissioners would have appropriate qualifications and training, and clearly understand their job was to bring consistency and fairness to consent outcomes.
Mr Semenoff said developers would not mind paying the extra costs of the new system.
"They will get a faster result and a more impartial result. Whether it is yes or no, it will reduce the holding costs developers face while waiting for decisions," he said.
"It will also bring consistency to decision- making, which will benefit developers and the district alike."
- Northern Advocate
