Hunter councils have welcomed a state government push to use artificial intelligence to cut development approval times, but a former Property Council boss has questioned whether the move will help boost housing supply.
The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure named Port Stephens Council on Wednesday as one of the "first group of enthusiastic councils" to investigate using AI for development applications.
The NSW government has budgeted $5.6 million on a pilot project designed to lift housing supply, calling on industry to submit proposals for reducing council staff workloads and streamlining DAs.
Port Stephens Council manager for development and compliance Evert Grobbelaar said the council had researched using AI to help residents who were unfamiliar with lodging DAs.
"We've had a look at some AI vendors out there to see how it could benefit us, especially in the pre-lodgement process and the community," he said.
"Not so much the developers but the general public out there that don't submit applications on a regular basis."
Mr Grobbelaar said AI could help applicants identify local rules, state legislation and required documentation which applied to a site.
"I think in that space the AI could be quite beneficial in bringing all of that together and allowing you to get some information about the suitability of what you're proposing.
"You don't have to be an expert."
He said AI could save planning officers time and allow them to focus on the larger, more complex development applications which play a key role in housing supply.
Council staff would still have to assess some aspects of development approvals, including visual impacts.
"For very simple applications ... AI could provide some sort of guidance in terms of a decision, but in these early days it would be very brave to say that the AI would make a decision," he said.
"I think there will still be an element of officers' involvement throughout the process."
Port Stephens Council already has one of the fastest average DA processing times in the state.
In the five months from July 1 to November 30, the council took an average of 51 days to determine DAs, less than half the state average of 107.
Newcastle's average processing time was 97 days, Lake Macquarie's 85, Cessnock's 75 and Maitland's 82.
The average processing time at under-administration Central Coast Council has blown out to 130 days, while Wollongong council averages 82 days.
The government said it would promote a list of suitable AI products and provide guidance for councils on how to engage with suppliers and select the best AI tools for the task.
The former Hunter chair of the Property Council, Neil Petherbridge, said AI could have some impact on housing supply "but I think the bigger issue is they just need to staff up their departments properly".
"Especially the Department of Planning; they just don't have enough people," he said.
"The local [DPHI] planning guys have just had half of their people taken off them to work on this new transport-oriented development stuff, which means all the other things, planning proposals and rezonings, have just lost half their staff.
"They need to resource these things properly."
He hoped AI would not lead to "cookie-cutter" projects which ticked compliance boxes but were not "a good development outcome for the community".
"I'm sceptical about how much benefit it will be, but I can see it certainly can flag where there's inconsistencies with the planning guidelines."
Mr Petherbridge, who runs an engineering consultancy, told an industry function in Newcastle in November that the state and federal governments had "no chance" of meeting housing targets because of cost and compliance pressures on the building sector.
"I reckon this year they'll be lucky if they do half of what they did last year," he said on Wednesday.
"It's a disaster. You've got builders not wanting to build them, prices going through the roof still, you can't get jobs to stack up, then you've got social housing levies as well now.
"There's nobody and nothing helping to deliver housing at the moment.
"If you overlay that with Transport not building the road infrastructure to allow these things to go ahead, it's just a bottleneck."
Lake Macquarie City Council's manager of development assessment and certification, Michael Corrigan, said the council supported "any initiative that aims to reduce development application processing times".
"We therefore welcome the NSW government's exploration of AI technology to help customers prepare and lodge DAs, particularly those delivering a diverse housing supply," he said.
"Simplifying processes will naturally improve efficiency.
"We're hoping the government's investment into AI solutions can be embedded into the ongoing refinement of the NSW Planning Portal tool, ensuring a universal tool accessible to all."
Planning Minister Paul Scully said councils were responsible for determining about 85 per cent of all new dwellings in the state.
"AI won't replace our highly skilled planners at the core of the planning system, but it will free them up from repetitive daily tasks so that they can focus on more complex DAs," he said.
"The department is also trialling AI tools such as chatbots and automated document processing to support triage queries and enhance response times for the Planning Portal."
