Planning and Environment
New Land and Environment Court Appeal Rights
The Covid-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures – Miscellaneous) Act 2020 (NSW) (COVID Act) came into effect on 14 May 2020 and amended the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EPA Act) by doubling the time period for lodging merit appeals...
NSW Planning Reforms: Appealing Planning Proposals and Rezoning Applications
The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (Department) has adopted a ‘Planning Reform Action Plan’ (Action Plan). The Action Plan introduces numerous changes including a new class of merit-based appeals in the Land and Environment Court for planning...
Changes to Interim Occupation Certificates in NSW
Occupation Certificates prior to amendments to the Act Prior to 1 March 2018, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the Act) specified two types of occupation certificates (OC) that could be applied for, to permit the occupancy and use of a new...
Court Rejects Challenge to Amber Light Approval
The ‘amber light’ approach adopted by the Land and Environment Court involves the delivery of an interim judgment which falls short of an outright refusal of an appeal, but which identifies elements of concern in the application which, if amended, could result in the...
Conservation Incentive Provisions Under Clause 5.10 – Court Maintains High Threshold
The policy initiative underlying the conservation incentive provisions set out in clause 5.10 of the Standard Instrument - Principal LEP, adopted in all Local Environmental Plans, is relatively straightforward. It is intended to facilitate the conservation and...
Proposed Changes to ‘Staged Development’ under the EPA Act following Decision of the NSW Court of Appeal
The policy initiative underlying the conservation incentive provisions set out in clause 5.10 of the Standard Instrument - Principal LEP, adopted in all Local Environmental Plans, is relatively straightforward. It is intended to facilitate the conservation and...
Court Applies the ‘Newbury Tests’ to Reject Unreasonable Conditions of Consent
The imposition of conditions of consent on development consents is a fairly routine and necessary part of the planning process in NSW. As a general proposition any conditions imposed by a consent authority under s80A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act...
Existing Use Rights Deemed to Apply to Entire Site
Existing use rights do not necessarily apply to an entire allotment of land. It will always depend upon a range of considerations, including whether the original use, when lawfully commenced or approved, applied to the entire allotment and whether, in the intervening...
The Band Plays On – Physical Commencement under the EPA Act
In the Land and Environment Court decision of Sally-Anne Maree Fagin v Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group Pty Limited [2017] NSWLEC 59, handed down recently, the Applicant sought to shut down the playing of live music at a nearby Hotel on the grounds that the...
Uncertainty in Development Consents – A Matter of Construction
Development consents are required to be framed in clear terms, for the obvious purpose of ensuring that the beneficiary of a consent, successors in title to the land enjoying the benefit of the consent, and the public at large are aware of what has...
