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Low and Mid Rise Housing Policy Amendment to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021
As foreshadowed in our article on 23 February here, the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) Amendment (Low and Mid Rise Housing) 2025 (Amending SEPP) commenced operation on Friday 28 February 2025 to give effect to the second stage of the…
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Use of public funds to support defamation litigation
By nature of their operations, local councils receive and control public funds for various purposes. Under the Local Government Act 1993 (LG Act), councils are required to follow principles of sound financial management, and ensure that their spending of public…
Land and Environment Court imposes record penalty for unlawful clearing of native vegetation
Late in 2024, the Land and Environment Court imposed record fines for the unlawful clearing of native vegetation in Secretary, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment v Ronald Lewis Greentree and Auen Grain Pty Ltd [2024] NSWLEC 131. Clearing of native…
Draft Australian Drinking Water Guidelines Released for Public Consultation
On 21 October 2024, the National Health and Medical Research Centre (NHMRC) released its proposed amendments to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (Guidelines) for public consultation. The draft Guidelines recommend lower values for PFAS in drinking water and are an…
REMINDER: Requirements of the Mandatory Data Breach Notification Scheme for Public Sector Agencies
The Mandatory Notification of Data Breach Scheme (MNDB Scheme) is a mandatory notification requirement under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act) for NSW public sector agencies, including all NSW agencies and departments, statutory authorities, local councils,…
Certifier Series: Does a building information certificate enable a certifier to issue an occupation certificate?
This is the first blog in our LTL in Focus: Certifier Series. The Certifier Series will cover a range of questions, issues and changes affecting both private and local council certifiers. A key function of certifiers is to issue occupation…
Update: Do special executive liability provisions extend to council officers?
The Court of Criminal Appeal has allowed an appeal against the Land and Environment Court’s decision in Environment Protection Authority v McMurray [2024] NSWLEC 6, finding that the special executive liability provisions in the Protection of the Environment Operations Act…
UPDATE: Court of Appeal overturns LEC decision on ‘single proposed development’
In April 2024 we wrote about a decision in the Land and Environment Court concerning a challenge to a development consent for an open cut silver, lead and zinc mine, which was State significant development (SSD). The consent was challenged…
ALERT – Permissibility of Dual Occupancies and Semi-detached Dwellings in Zone R2
The State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) Amendment (Dual Occupancies and Semi-detached Dwellings) 2024 (Amendment SEPP), which seeks to encourage development for the purposes of dual occupancies and semi-detached dwellings in Zone R2 R2 Low Density Residential, has been published. The…
UPDATED TRANSPORT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT MAPS
Further to previous posts regarding the TOD Provisions inserted into the Housing SEPP and issues with the mapping, the mapping now appears differently to how it did when first released. Instead of the maps showing a ‘transport oriented development area’…
SUPERCEDED Transport Oriented Development Maps Released
This article has been superceded. For current information regarding the Transport Oriented Development Maps please see our article published on 14 May 2024. On Monday I published an article on the insertion of the Transport Oriented Development provisions (TOD Provisions)…
Transport Oriented Development – Amendments to Housing SEPP
The much discussed and controversial ‘Transport Oriented Development’ planning controls (TOD Provisions) have finally been published by way of the insertion of a new Chapter 5 into the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 (Housing SEPP) today. The TOD Provisions…