Planning and Building Department

Unique IDAG-0008DescriptionIn accordance with Action Priority 1D of the 1971 City of Sydney Strategic Plan, the City Building Surveyor's Department became the City Planning and Building Department in 1972. This title was eventually shortened to the City Planning Department but the shortening of the title did not signal any major changes to the Department, nor was it ever officially recognised.

There were four branches within the department: the Building Regulation Branch which covered structural engineering, building inspection and the architects; the Strategic Planning Branch which controlled research and information, operational planning, environmental management and the draftsmen's section; the Statutory Planning Branch which controlled statutory planning and development inspection; and the Administration Branch which controlled the information and clerical sections.

In 1977, the City of Sydney Survey Group was set up in the Department to investigate the businesses and other activities conducted in city buildings. The following year, the Architects were transferred to the CA 3, Administration Department. On 22 January 1980, the survey group (renamed the Building Activity Section) was transferred to the Electoral Branch of CA 3, Administration Department. When that Department was restructured in May 1984, the Building Activity Section briefly returned to City Planning until it moved to CA 4, Information Systems, in February 1985. In 1994, it was moved back to Planning.

In February 1987 the Planning Department consisted of the Planning Statutes Branch, which processed development applications, the Building Statutes Branch, which processed building applications, and the Compliance Branch, which investigated unauthorised building work and unauthorised use.

On 1 January 1982, South Sydney Municipal Council was amalgamated with the City Council. This significantly increased the work load of the department as well as increasing the number of staff, but the existing structure of the department was not disturbed.

The first head of City Planning was John Doran who was appointed City Planner in 1972. Frank Hanson commenced duties as Director of Planning (a separate position) on a contract basis on 26 April 1986.

The City of Sydney was divided from 1 January 1989 into the City of Sydney and the City of South Sydney. As a result of this development, the structure of the Council was reorganised and the new structure was gazetted as Schedule 2 of the Act on 2 December 1988 and took effect on 1 January 1989.

The new organisation structure for Planning consisted of four branches: the Planning Branch which processed development applications and undertook strategic and statutory planning subject to the decisions of the Central Sydney Planning Committee; the Building Services Branch which was responsible for the processing of building applications and building inspections and appeals; the Customer Services Branch handled pre-application advice and providing zoning and other certificates; and the Administrative Branch took care of financial and administrative support services, including the maintenance of registers, administration of licenses and statistics compilation.

The Branch Managers as of 21 March 1989 were Bob Nolan (Planning), Alan Shaw
(Building Services), Ralph Kirsch (Customer Services), and John Brooks (Administration).

On 21 December 1992, Council adopted a consultant's recommendation for a new organisation structure for the Council. CA 8, Planning and Building, was replaced by CA 135, City Planning and Building Division, 1993+. John McInerney was appointed City Planner.CreationResolution of Council 25 October 1971AbolitionResolution of Council 21 December 1992

Description

Start date25th October 1971End date31st December 1992Relationship legacy dataPRECEDED BY: City Treasury Department I AG-0012 (by 31/12/1979) - Processing applications for S342 certificates moved from Treasury in 1979
PRECEDED BY: South Sydney Municipal Council Town Planning Department AG-0026 (01/01/1982)
PRECEDED BY: South Sydney Municipal Council Health and Building Department AG-0018 (01/01/1982)
PRECEDED BY: City Architect and Building Surveyors Department II AG-0016 (25/10/1971)
PRECEDED BY: Administration Department AG-0003 (28/05/1984) - Building Activity Section to Planning in 1984
RELATED TO: Sydney City Council OR-0001 (25/10/1971 to 31/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Traffic management FN-0018 (25/10/1971 to 31/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Town planning FN-0011 (25/10/1971 to 31/12/1992)
RELATED TO: Building and development regulation FN-0010 (25/10/1971 to 31/12/1992)
SUBORDINATE AGENCY: Parking Advisory Committee AG-0161 (17/02/1971 to 31/12/1992)
SUBORDINATE AGENCY: Sydney Traffic Committee AG-0162 (13/12/1976 to 31/12/1992)
Source System ID8

Relationships

Preceding agenciesAdministration DepartmentCity Architect and Building Surveyor's Department IISouth Sydney Municipal Council Health and Building DepartmentSouth Sydney Municipal Council Town Planning DepartmentCity Treasury Department ISubordinate agenciesSydney Traffic CommitteeParking Advisory CommitteeOrganisationSydney City CouncilRelated functionsBuilding and development regulationTown planningTraffic management

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Planning and Building Department