Changes To Planning Application Notice Displays

January 14, 2016

The Department of Planning announced today [Jan 14] that “in order to better serve the public, they will be improving their advertising of planning applications by requiring applicants/agents to display a notice of the proposed development on site.”

The announcement said, “Over the years, the Department of Planning has received many comments from members of the public about advertising new applications in the Official Gazette such as:

  • “Applications are advertised once and if you do not see the advertisement, the opportunity to comment is missed. This is particularly a problem for people that travel frequently”;
  • “The onus is on individuals to look at the advertisements”;
  • “It is hard to know exactly where the property subject to the application is located as no map is provided with the advert and some properties do not have municipal street numbers, in particular in the case of vacant lots.”

“To address these concerns the department has designed a “Development/Subdivision Proposal” site notice [see template below]. The applicant/agent would be responsible for preparing the sign and posting it in a location on site [e.g. on a building, post or pole] which is clearly visible to the public and clear of any obstructions.

“The sign should be installed as soon as possible, once the wording has been provided by the Department. This is processed via the Acknowledgement Letter to the applicant/agent who must provide photographic proof to the Department of Planning that the notice has been installed on site.

“Once the planning application has been determined [approved or refused] there is a period to appeal the decision [21 days from being given notice of the Board’s decision]. The sign should be removed no sooner than one week after the appeal period has ended. This means that signs can be removed approximately one month after the decision has been made.

“This new initiative addresses an objective of the Public Access to Information Act 2010 which is to have more information placed in the public domain as a matter of routine.

“It also meets the Department of Planning’s objective of providing a more efficient and customer-friendly planning regime; and it addresses the concerns of the public and NGOs which are that newspaper advertisements alone are insufficient to properly notify the public of proposed developments across the Island.

“This initiative will come into effect as of January 25th 2016.”

The template  follows below [PDF here]:

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Comments (5)

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  1. FINALLY says:

    You mean like when Government decides to put up an ugly water tower in the middle of the Botanical Garden?

  2. Triangle Drifter says:

    For once a good idea comes out of the Planning Department. Many years late.

    How many people don’t even buy a newspaper anymore?

    • Hard Hat says:

      Good idea and way overdue. However, if you really want to improve things at planning get rid of one certain rude inspector. Not naming names but just ask anyone that calls planning for inspections regularly and I’m sure most individuals can tell exactly who the one rude and inefficient inspector is that is on a power trip. The rest are efficient, respectful and will try and work with you even when they fail you after an inspection. I can’t believe he hasn’t been fired, which is probably exactly why he seems to have this power hungry attitude.

  3. Wish this were the case years ago. I’m at the deas end of a narrow driveway and I have to pass two houses (3 Apts to each house) to get to my house. This road is one way in n one way out. The roadway is suppose to be twelve feet wide but the owner of the house had made a parking area for his two houses. The vehicles face out towards me as I drive down to my hard and some of the cars are long and stick our far. Many many many many times I’ve had to wait for cars, water trucks, moving trucks and other vehicles to finish doing whatever they are there for before I can drive into my yard. These vehicles have driven into my yard to turn around, I always take pictures when vehicles are parked in the way. I was coming home one night around mid night and someone was visiting one of the tenants in the house n they parked their car literally at the top of my driveway and I couldn’t get in my yard. I too try my car horn a few times n no one came out of any of the surrounding houses. So I got out of my car to go from house to house to find out who the car belonged to. When I found the person I asked them never ever bloc my driveway again. The next night the same person visited the again n had the nerve to park in my yard. I went back to the apartment and told the person that my yard is not a parking area for other properties. One of my tenants took sick n 911 was called and the fire truck is always dispatched first, it couldn’t get down to my yard past the vehicles sticking out too far so it had to back out of the driveway n we had to wait for the ambulance to arrive instead. God forbid that there should be a major incident at my house and emergency vehicles cannot get to my house. I’ve called the owner of the two house and he is just as rude as he could be. I’ve called planning before but the problem still happens on a daily basis. There are six apartments to the two buildings and there have been up to eleven vehicles parked along the roadway and of course they drive in my yard to turn around. If there was a red planning application on the building site I certainly would have objected!! Do I make a loud fuss over this or just continue to put up with it?!?!?

    • Sal says:

      Has this been resolved? has Planning assisted you at all. Dealing with construction issues and would love to compare notes!