HSC Councillor Emma Heyde wrote on facebook on 21/6/2018
Not many things are more stressful than something being built next door that you object to. Council has often been criticised for making the situation worse. But changes are in the pipeline. See what you think … 
- A senior planner will now be on the desk when DAs are first lodged to make sure that DAs that are erroneous, incomplete or misleading are returned.
- A new team with staff from Compliance, Trees, Natural Resources, Engineering and Planning will review incoming DAs.
- DAs that are determined by staff (and not the new Independent Panel because they did not get ten objections) but which are still very contentious may be decided by a new Determination Panel made up of Council staff.
- All DAs determined by staff will need to be signed off my a Senior Planning Officer.
- DA guidelines will now require details about any imported fill to be used on a site, and include a construction traffic management plan.
- All environmental compliance matters will now be investigated by the Compliance team, rather than planners.
- Staff will more quickly identify and investigate cases where there are complaints from multiple sources.
- Council is looking at the workload of the Compliance team and comparing it with other councils to see whether they need more staff.
- PLUS– check out the new DA tracking system. You can see every DA in your suburb lodged in the last six months, and everything that has been approved or refused here: http://hscenquiry.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/…/OutstandingApplicati…