![BOOMING NORTH: Council's development manager Sam Lobsey said the city is continuing to boom northwards. Picture by Peter Hardin BOOMING NORTH: Council's development manager Sam Lobsey said the city is continuing to boom northwards. Picture by Peter Hardin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/caitlin.reid%40fairfaxmedia.com./9e5b4c38-64b5-4bed-984e-7d675577bb14.jpg/r0_0_4834_3223_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A multi-million dollar development boom in Tamworth has mounted pressure on town planners who are working hard to speed up approval times to keep up with increased builds.
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Development application (DA) values across the Tamworth local government area have continued to soar over the last 12 months, up almost 10 per cent on the previous year to $182 million.
Tamworth Regional Council's development manager Sam Lobsey said DA approvals have been on the up since the drought ended in 2020, and overall value is higher than the city's ever seen before.
"We did have a slump during the drought period, but we're really starting to see a jump back," he said.
During the 2021 to 2022 financial year, 478 developments were approved, an increase from the previous year. Of these, 389 were residential and 89 commercial, with a further 158 new dwelling approvals representing $71 million worth of housing over the last year.
But a boom in construction has meant processing times are lagging behind, with the council's planning department too short-staffed to deal with the extra work.
The average timeframe it takes the council to approve an application is 50 days, up from about 30 a few years ago.
It's a state-wide issue, and one that's hitting regional councils particularly hard, Mr Lobsey said.
"Approval numbers could have been a bit higher if we had some more resourcing available, we've been a bit slow, so our timeframes have increased," he said.
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Inadequate documentation supplied by applicants has caused further delays, Mr Lobsey said, but staff are working on fast-tracking residential developments that tick all the boxes to deal with the region's housing shortage.
Residential developments are booming north of the city, with Moore Creek the most popular suburb for DA approvals for 2021 to 2022.
That's followed by North Tamworth, particularly around Flagstaff Road, where a lot of residential subdivisions are occurring.
Calala came in third, followed by East Tamworth and Hillview - popular for residential alterations where people are upgrading their homes.
Mr Lobsey said for residential applications, there's usually a 36 day turnaround, it's the industrial developments that are dragging down the average approval time.
He stressed the importance of developers booking in meetings with council before submitting a large-scale application to speed up the process.
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