Town Planning Act and Subdivision of Lands Act’s Revision To Address Illegal Development
She said the revision of the Town Planning Act and Subdivision of Lands Act will address this issue and suggest other options to deal with illegal developments.
“The usual practice for the councils is to issue stop-work notices. followed by proceedings in court which is a long process,” Ms Kumar said.
The first draft of the revised acts will be released by the end of the financial year.
According to Ms Kumar, the 42-year-old legislation needs to be revised to ensure that it is on par with international planning standards.
The acts were enacted in 1978 and administered by the Director of Town and Country Planning and provide a clear mandate to regulate land use and development.
Ms Kumar said they have engaged the services of a consultant, namely Maraia Ubitau of Nadkam Consultants, to review the legislation after which natinwide consultations will be conducted.
“The ministry through its consultant will carry out thorough research to study the best planning practices and legislation’s used in other jurisdictions. The principles learnt will then be incorporated in the amendments to suit the local planning context of Fiji,” she said.
“There are significant gaps in the existing legislation. For example, there are no provisions in the act which provides guidance on who can lodge building applications.”
She said Suva City Council received more than 200 sub-standard applications last year which had to be rejected.
“There were issues with structural designs. Changes will be made to ensure accredited and qualified persons can lodge development applications to protect the interest of the public and developers at large,” Ms Kumar said.
“The ultimate aim of this revision is to streamline the planning approval processes and strengthen development control. Currently, all sorts of application end up at Town and Country Planning. The review will consider decentralizing approvals so that only major development is forwarded to the office of the Town and Country Planning for approval.”
She said this would allow the Town and Country Planning department to focus on strategic planning such as master planning and revision of Town Planning schemes.
Credit: Fiji Sun
Date: 21/5/2020
