But neighbouring council Great Lakes has found itself at the other end of the scale, in the top ten worst highest determination times by staff to DA ratio.

This information was released last month in a state government report monitoring the performance of all NSW local councils in the 2012/13 financial year.

All up the Port determined 780 DAs in the financial year with six equivalent full-time (EFTs) staff members, while Great Lakes determined 392 with seven EFTs.

Port Stephens DAs value totalled $318 million while Great Lakes, which had less applications, came in at $53 million.

Both the Port and Great Lakes council's are in the same local government code, a classification given based on the socio-economic characteristics and location.

But Great Lakes planning and environmental services director Lisa Schiff said it was not fair to compare the two.

"There are a number of factors that contribute to these statistics. The legislation provides an opportunity for councils to 'stop the clock' in a number of instances, which essentially halts the number of days counted for determination," she said.

"We do not currently have the capacity to use current corporate software systems to stop the clock. Processing times are therefore not accurately represented."

The Port has spent the past five years in the top 10 for DAs determined per staff member, but just skimmed into the rankings in the 2012 report.

Since then the council has continued to improve its result, taking fifth spot in the 2013 report and fourth in this year's report.

The council's development assessment and compliance manager Matthew Brown said the success was due to hard work and an increase in the number of bigger developments.

"Port Stephens Council is delighted to be recognised . . . for its fourth-place ranking, which reflects the ongoing hard work of the development assessments team," he said.

"The market is generally flat with slight trends of decreased number of applications in small multi-residential developments and duplexes while the number of villa developments and commercial developments are up."

Great Lakes Council's Ms Schiff said the area had suffered as a result of the global financial crisis but things were looking up.

"We have, however, started to see an improvement in inquiry and application numbers and, with some new major landowners on the development scene, we are anticipating a range of development opportunities, including industrial, commercial, residential and tourism," she said.