FAQs

Exempt Development
Some minor building renovations or works don’t need any planning or building approval. This is called exempt development. Exempt development is very low impact development that can be done for certain residential, commercial and industrial properties.

Note that section 5.10(3) of standard LEPs allow Council’s to grant an exemption from obtaining planning approval if the proposed development is:

• is of a minor nature or is for the maintenance of the heritage item, Aboriginal object, Aboriginal place of heritage significance or archaeological site or a building, work, relic, tree or place within the heritage conservation area, and
• would not adversely affect the heritage significance of the heritage item, Aboriginal object, Aboriginal place, archaeological site or heritage conservation area

Complying Development
Complying development is planning approval for straight forward development that can be determined through a fast-track assessment by a council or an accredited certifier. Complying development applies to new dwelling houses, alterations and additions to a house, new industrial buildings, demolition of a building, and changes to a business use.

Urban Perspectives can provide written planning advice as to whether your development is complying development or not.

Local Development
Local development is the most common type of development in NSW, with projects ranging from home extensions to medium sized commercial, retail and industrial developments.

A development is considered local development if:

• a local environmental plan (LEP) or State environmental planning policy (SEPP) states that development consent is required before the development can take place; and
• it is not considered to be either Regionally significant development or State significant development.

Urban Perspectives can prepare the Statement of Environmental Effects that is requirement to support an application for local development.

Regionally significant development
Regionally significant development is larger in investment value/scale and/or complexity. Sydney district and regional planning panels, made up of independent experts, decide whether to approve this development.

Types of regionally significant development are listed in:

• Schedule 6 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Planning Systems) 2021
• Specific sections of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979
• The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021.

Typical regionally significant developments include:

• projects with a capital investment value of more than $30 million
• projects with a capital investment value of more than $5 million that are:
  • council-related
  • lodged for the State of NSW
  • private infrastructure and community projects
  • eco-tourism facilities.
  • extractive industries, waste facilities and marinas
  • coastal protection works where there is no certified coastal management program
  • certain coastal subdivisions
  • projects with a capital investment value of $10 million to $30 million that the applicant refers to the planning panel after 120 days.

Developments in the City of Sydney council area are not regionally significant. Also developments that meet exempt or complying development requirements are not regional significant even if the development exceeds the above capital investment thresholds.

Urban Perspectives can prepare the Statement of Environmental Effects or sometimes an Environmental Impact Statement that is requirement to support an application for regional development.

State Significant Development
A proposal is considered state significant if it:.

• is over a certain size
• is in a sensitive environmental area
• will exceed a specific capital investment value.

Development on identified sites can also be considered state significant. SSD types and sites are listed in schedules 1 and 2 of chapter 2 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Planning Systems) 2021.

The Minister for Planning may also ‘call in’ development proposals if a proposal is considered to be of state significance.

Urban Perspectives can prepare the Environmental Impact Statement that is requirement to support an application for State Significant development.

State Significant Infrastructure
State significant infrastructure includes transport and services developments with effects beyond local areas, such as:

• rail infrastructure
• road infrastructure
• water storage and treatment plants
• wharves and boating facilities
• pipelines
• some developments in national parks.

Any of these types of infrastructure is considered state significant if it is:

• above a certain size or capital investment value
• or is in a sensitive environmental location.

For the full list of SSI development types, see schedules 3 and 4 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Planning Systems) 2021

Urban Perspectives can prepare the Environmental Impact Statement that is requirement to support an application for State Significant infrastructure.

Part 5 Approvals
Part 5 Approvals apply to activities undertaken by government departments, agencies or infrastructure providers as part of their responsibilities (e.g. water supply infrastructure, sewer, roads, electricity, state and private schools, public and private hospitals etc). Many of these activities are allowed to be carried out under State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) 2021. Environmental assessment of these activities is undertaken under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act).

Urban Perspectives can prepare the Review of Environmental Factors (REF) that is requirement to support an application for State Significant infrastructure.

Check the relevant Local Environment Plan (LEP) or Exempt and Complying Development State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP). Other environmental planning instruments also list exempt and complying development such as the Housing SEPP, the Transport and Infrastructure SEPP or within the Local Environmental Plan (LEP).

Urban Perspectives can advise on you on the appropriate approval pathway for your development.

Register through the NSW Planning Portal and follow the prompts to provide the required information and complete your application.

You must ensure that you have all the necessary information and documents before lodging your application. These documents vary depending on the type of application and development that is proposed to be carried out, and they may also vary depending on the Local Government Area where the property is situated.

Once you have provided all the requested information and have uploaded all the documents, your material will be assessed and if it is sufficient or acceptable, you will be asked to pay the application fee.

Your application is not lodged until the application fee is paid.

Here is a link to the site: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/

The NSW Planning Performance Dashboard in the NSW Planning Portal sets out a monthly development application summary of applications submitted, lodged and determined. It also provides the average time it has taken to determine DAs in the preceding months.

The link to this segment of the planning portal is: https://pp.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/eplanningreport

The NSW Planning Portal provides access to planning information for each property in NSW, and the planning controls that apply to it.

The link to this segment of the planning portal is: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/spatialviewer

No. The NSW Environmental Planning & Assessment Act does not allow retrospective approval (Ku-ring-gai Council v Buyozo Pty Ltd [2021] NSWCA 177). You can obtain planning approval for the ongoing use and you can obtain a Building Information Certificate for the physically works that have already occurred. This certificate ensures the whole or part of the building covered by the certificate won’t be subject to any regulatory action by the local council for 7 years.

A REAP is a Registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner. In NSW all Environmental Impact Statements relating to State Significant Development and State Significant Infrastructure applications must be reviewed by a REAP, who must also sign a declaration to the effect that the EIS is complete, accurate, legible and complies with the relevant requirements of its preparation. In order to make such a declaration, Urban Perspectives senior town planners are qualified REAPs who oversee and are involved in the preparation of the EIS document.

Yes, Urban Perspectives can advise you on the potential development yield of a site in NSW. However, we cannot advise you on the feasibility of a project (ie likely cost and sales of a project).

A development standard is a provision in an environmental planning instrument that dictates certain parameters within which development may be carried out. These standards include but are not limited to the minimum subdivided lot size, the maximum floor space ratio and the maximum permissible building height for a given site.

If there is an aspect of a proposed development that cannot meet these parameters, the consent authority is not able to grant approval to the application unless a written request to vary the development standard has been lodged with the application. This is called a Clause 4.6 Exception Request. Urban Perspectives can prepare a Clause 4.6 Exception Request to support your development application.

Note that SEPP 1, which is an old planning instrument that predates the introduction of Clause 4.6 in LEPs, applies to development zoned by a planning ordinance or within the Rocks and Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority Area.

An applicant can request to have a refused development application reassessed by a different planning officer or appeal directly to the Land and Environment Court of NSW. Urban Perspectives specialise in acting as planning experts for the NSW Land and Environment Court.

The first step is to ensure you DA includes all the information Council requires. Most Council’s have a DA checklist on their website. You can use this checklist to ensure you have all the relevant documentation ready to submit. You can also request a pre-DA meeting with a Council planner to identify any issues early and make design changes to improve the likelihood of obtaining approval.

If your development has a capital investment value between $10 and $30 million and Council has not determined the application within 120 days you can request the application to be determined by the regional planning panel (Schedule 6(9) of the Planning System SEPP). The regional planning panel has the discretion to not determine the application if it is of the view the applicant is the cause of the delays.

You can also request the Secretary of the Department of Planning to intervene where another government agency is taking too long to issue a concurrence or referral and Council chooses not to determine an application because it has not received that concurrence or referral.

Consent authorities do not have the power to grant consent for uses that are not permissible within the zone except in the following circumstances:

• The consent authority may grant consent to development for any purpose of a building that is a heritage item or of the land on which such a building is erected, or for any purpose on an Aboriginal place of heritage significance, even though development for that purpose would otherwise not be allowed by this Plan, if the consent authority is satisfied that
  1. the conservation of the heritage item or Aboriginal place of heritage significance is facilitated by the granting of consent, and
  2. the proposed development is in accordance with a heritage management document that has been approved by the consent authority, and
  3. the consent to the proposed development would require that all necessary conservation work identified in the heritage management document is carried out, and
  4. the proposed development would not adversely affect the heritage significance of the heritage item, including its setting, or the heritage significance of the Aboriginal place of heritage significance, and
  5. the proposed development would not have any significant adverse effect on the amenity of the surrounding area.
• If the development is State Significant Development, then consent may be granted despite the development being partly prohibited by an environmental planning instrument.

All of NSW