[Laurie McGuiness]

Hi Maria
I agree with Robert, definitely cannot be categorised as residential.
When I was at Lake Macquarie we had a Land & Environment Court case on this matter, back in the mid nineties, where the judge found a manufactured home estate could not be categorised as residential because of the regulation Robert mentioned. I am not sure of the case name, maybe Mullen & Others v LMCC, I think Justice Pearlman was the Judge.
Hope this helps.

[Laurie McGuiness]

Hi Neil
My understanding is that classifying property as Public Benefit is a two part process.
Firstly the dominant use of the property must be in accordance with the definitions detailed on page 42 of the manual.
Secondly NSW Treasury have advised that it is important to note that councils can’t simply check if a property use is on the Public Benefit list to classify it as Public Benefit. Councils must determine whether it is operated as a not-for-profit before a property can be classified Public Benefit. If a council is not sure if an organisation is a not-for-profit, they can check if they are registered on the Australian Charities an Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) website.
If it is not registered with ACNC the property should not be classified as Public Benefit.
So if the family day care services were carried out in a private home, it would meet the first test, but being privately owned it is unlikely to be registered with ACNC, and would fail the second test, and therefore could not be classified as Public Benefit.

Hope this helps.

Laurie

[Laurie McGuiness]

Hi Lee
I don’t think you have a problem either way.
When we applied for a special variation some years ago, the figures on the Draft Operational Plan differed slightly to the SV application due to supps etc, and we had no problems. As long as you are not making significant changes to the structure there is no issue, otherwise you would not be able to process any supps, changes of category etc. after the SV application was made.

The other option you could take would be include the SV rating structure in the Draft Operational Plan and take one of the following two approaches:
1. Include a note in the Draft Operational Plan (Revenue Policy) to the effect that as Council will continue to process adjustments to its rating records until the time the Operational Plan is adopted, minor changes to the amounts shown will occur.
We include this statement each year and amend the figures shown in the Draft Operational Plan when we adopt the Operational Plan.
2 The other option would be for Council to make a submission to the Draft Operational Plan, in accordance with Section 405 (3&5), detailing the changes required, and then adpting the
Operational Plan incorporating these changes.

A similar issue arose some years ago and there is an archived Forum topic “SOC & Rate Pegging » Deviating from the Draft Management Plan” you might want to look at.

Regards
Laurie

[Laurie McGuiness]

Hi Cherie

Yes, we had MDAFs in the olden days, (Section 118(6A) of the 1919 Act.
The basis of determining dominant use was no different to now.
In your case it most likely the property would be subject to the general rate (which now would be equivalent to the Residential category of the Ordinary rate).

Cheers
Laurie

[Laurie McGuiness]

Morning All

The updated version of the Workpapers is now available on the OLG website.

Laurie

[Laurie McGuiness]

Morning

I completed the Workpapers this morning and encountered some minor problems with the Draft Special Schedule 9.
I have spoken to Helen Pearce at OLG and they are currently making the corrections, and a new version of the Workpapers will be on their website this afternoon.
Helen asked that if anyone had any questions in relation to this to please contact her directly.

Regards

Laurie

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