Planning and Development
Planning in NSW is primarily regulated through the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 . The Department of Planning is the responsible government department.
Planning and development operates at two main levels in NSW. The two categories are major projects and “council” developments.
If you want more information about a development that is proposed in your area, you must therefore first determine which category that particular development falls into.
1. Major projects
Major projects are developments that, in the opinion of the Minister for Planning, are of State or regional environmental planning significance. The Minister for Planning is the consent authority for these developments. This means that the Minister determines whether the development may go ahead.
Major projects currently include government infrastructure proposals, specified projects on State significant sites, hospitals, large-scale mining and extractive industry, sensitive coastal developments, industrial projects and construction projects. These are declared by order of the Minister if he or she believes that the development is of “regional” or “state” significance or essential infrastructure. Such orders are published in the NSW Government Gazette. Further, categories of major projects are identified in State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005 . The SEPP can be viewed here:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/scanact/inforce/NONE/0
Under Section 75X of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 the Director-General of the Department of Planning is required to make the following information publicly available:
(a) applications to carry out projects,
(b) environmental assessment requirements for a project determined by the Director-General or the Minister,
(c) environmental assessment reports of the Director-General to the Minister,
(d) approvals to carry out projects given by the Minister,
(e) applications for the Minister's approval of concept plans (and approvals of concept plans),
(f) requests for modifications of approvals given by the Minister and any modifications made by the Minister.
This information is available online. The Department of Planning website contains three publicly accessible registers of major projects. They provide information on applications under Part 3A, those under exhibition and the determination of the project (Whether the project has been approved or refused by the Minister for Planning and what conditions attached). Links to these registers are provided below.
Link to Register of Major Projects:
http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/asp/register.asp
Link to projects on exhibition:
http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/assessingdev/onexhibition.asp
Link to Notices of determination:
http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/asp/ndetermination.asp
2. Most other developments (“council developments”)
For most other development applications in NSW, local councils are the consent authority. This means that they have the authority to approve or refuse developments, and impose conditions of consent. Furthermore, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 prescribes mandatory matters that councils must consider when making a decision. These include impacts on the environment, social and economic impacts in the locality and the public interest.
Development applications are usually determined by reference to the relevant Local Environmental Plan and/or Development Control Plan, which contain zoning restrictions and development standards.
Local environmental plans are listed in alphabetical order under the heading “instrument in force” on the NSW Legislation Website:
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/scanact/inforce/NONE/0
Register of information
Under section 100 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, every council in NSW is required to keep a register of applications for development consent, the determinations of those development consents and determinations of applications for complying development certificates. This register must be available for public inspection, without charge, at the office of the council during ordinary office hours. Some councils provide online access to these registers via their websites. Therefore, you should try council websites first to find the register. If you cannot locate the register online then you will have to go into the council's office to inspect the register.
Furthermore, the Local Government Act 1993 requires local governments to make certain information available to the public upon request. This information includes:
- development applications and associated documents;
- environmental planning instruments, development control plans and plans applying to land within the council's area.
- agendas and business papers for council and committee meetings (but not including business papers for matters considered when part of a meeting is closed to the public);
- minutes of council and committee meetings, but restricted, in the case of a meeting that is closed to the public, to the resolutions and recommendations of the meeting;
- leases and licences for use of public land classified as community land;
- plans of management for community land;
- records of approvals granted, any variation from local policies with reasons for the variation, and decisions made on appeals concerning approvals;
The full list of documents is available here:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/lga1993182/s12.html
Councils are legally required to make this information available to members of the public. If you are refused access, you can make a complaint to the Director General of the Department of Local Government or to the New South Wales Ombudsman. Exemptions apply in relation to some types of information including information of a personal nature or information which relates to the commercial commercial affairs of a business (trade secrets etc). Documents can be inspected free of charge during office hours at council chambers. You may also take away copies of documents, but the council is allowed to charge reasonable copying fees. Certain documents cannot be copied, such as the residential roll of electors.
Some councils have Development Control Plans, council meeting minutes and information about development applications on their websites. You can find the website for your local council on the Department of Local Government website:
http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/dlg/dlghome/dlg_LocalGovDirectory.asp?index=1&mi=2&ml=2
3. Development under Commonwealth Law
The relevant federal legislation relevant is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The Act protects the environment, particularly matters of National Environmental Significance. Assessment and/or approval is needed where a proposed development is deemed by the Minister to be a “controlled action”. This means that the Minister is of the opinion that the development will have a significant impact on one of the listed matters. The current matters of national environmental significance include world heritage, Ramsar wetlands and listed threatened species.
Invitations to comment
Whenever development proposals are referred to the Commonwealth for determination on whether they are controlled actions public comment is invited. This enables the public to provide their comments on whether they believe that the proposal is likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance. The link is found here:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=invitation_to_comment;limit=7;text_search
Strategic Assessment Notices
Under s146 of the EPBC Act , the Commonwealth Environment Minister may agree to conduct a strategic assessment of actions that may be carried out under a proposed policy, program or plan. These notices are provided by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts to help provide information on strategic assessments. The link is:
http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/notices/strategic.html