Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT council has become the first in the country to dangle a carrot of swifter assessment for new house plans if they’re more environmentally-considerate.

It’s part of an effort to get more sustainable homes built and cut down on emissions, water waste and electricity use. 

Lengthy waits to get development applications processed are a common complaint from builders dealing with local governments: The development assessment processing time at Vincent currently ranges from 14 days to 159 days, with simpler house plans averaging 20 working days. 

Vincent’s new fast “green-track” incentive aims to further reduce processing time for single or grouped dwellings to within 10 working days if the applicant can show how their design stacks up against the council’s environmentally-friendly housing objectives. 

That will be done via a “Life Cycle Assessment” – a measurement of the lifetime savings of emissions and fresh water the development could achieve through green-friendly measures. This will be included with the house plans.

Vincent mayor Alison Xamon announced the new fast-track system this week, and said in a statement: “We are thrilled to be the first local government in Australia to introduce a GreenTrack service. 

“This will have a huge impact on our sustainability footprint in residential areas and help tackle climate change at a local level.

“We want to help lead the transformation in how we live and use our resources in the future and reward our community for choosing to invest in environmentally friendly design.

“Getting this right at the beginning will save time and money during construction as fewer expensive add-ons will be required to achieve performance targets. This is in addition to a lifetime worth of financial savings for residents who live in a comfortable energy and water efficient home.”

While applications that include an LCA will get prioritised for assessment and be processed faster, they still have to meet the usual building rules to get approved. 

by DAVID BELL