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Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (Regulation 2021) came into force on 1 March 2022 and replaced the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 (Regulation 2000). Regulation 2021 largely continues to reflect its predecessor, but has been designed to improve the planning system by removing unnecessarily complex provisions and simplifying the system for all users.

A number of the key changes are outlined below.

Development Applications

Regulation 2021 requires that all development applications must be made in the approved form, which is located on the NSW Planning Portal, and must include all the information and documents specified in the approved form or required by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) and the Regulation. The development application (DA) may be rejected by the consent authority if it does not contain this information. [...]  READ MORE →

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Increased Council and Court Powers under the recently reformed Environment Planning and Assessment Act

The recently reformed Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (the Act) continues to be rolled out over the first half of 2018. As well as the other amendments aforementioned in our previous article, one of the major changes to the Act is with regard to the increased powers given to Local Councils and Courts when dealing with complying development certificates for local development applications.

In order to achieve the NSW Government’s primary purpose “to promote confidence in our state’s planning system”, the Act aims to enable Local Councils and Courts to adequately and appropriately deal with developments and their relative certificates with more ease by granting them increased powers in this area. [...]  READ MORE →

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Online Development Applications

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment (the Department) has announced plans to move the lodgement of Development Applications (DAs) online, saving significant time for applicants.

The average time taken to prepare and submit a traditional DA is up to ten (10) days. The Department’s proposed online system has the potential to reduce this time to thirty (30) minutes.

Whilst some Local Councils currently allow online submissions of DAs, the Department proposes a unified system which will be a “one stop shop” for development applications and complying development certificates. In the future the system will connect any type of application to be lodged to any local council within New South Wales. [...]  READ MORE →