Posted on September 1, 2026 by Dimitrious Havadjia and Adriana Kleiss 5

ALERT: Statewide Community Consultation Plan now in effect

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Act 2025 continues to make significant changes to the development process in NSW.

As of 1 September 2026, the reforms relating to community participation have commenced, and the statewide Community Participation Plan (CPP) is now in effect. We previously wrote about the draft version of the CPP here: Draft CPP and DAs Exempt from Public Notification.

The CPP replaces the community participation plans prepared by each local council and other planning authorities and has been given legal effect by amendments to the relevant sections of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) to remove references to other plans and instead refer only to the CPP.

Key Aspects of the CPP

Some Development Excluded from Exhibition

Although the list is shorter than was proposed in the draft CPP, there remains an extensive list of development types that are not required to be placed on public exhibition under the CPP if they do not seek a variation to a height of building or floor space variation standard, including:

1. demolition,
2. ancillary development to existing residential accommodation (such as but not limited to pools, sheds, pergolas and carports),
3. dual occupancies (up to two storeys),
4. attached dwellings (up to 5 dwellings),
5. dwelling houses (up to two storeys),
6. multi dwelling housing (up to 5 dwellings),
7. internal and external alterations and additions to existing residential accommodation resulting in no more than two storeys,
8. subdivision of land resulting in no more than 5 new lots, and
9. modifications to a development consent made under section 4.55(1), (1A), and (2) of the EPA Act (the latter only if the development subject to modification was already excluded).

A number of larger residential developments, such as group homes and residential flat buildings, have been removed from the final list of exclusions. However, applications for multi dwelling housing and attached dwellings of up to 5 dwellings are no longer required to be publicly exhibited.

Standardised Timeframes for Exhibition

The CPP also mandates standard exhibition timeframes for development applications (that aren’t excluded) and other planning documents prepared by authorities.

With respect to development applications, the CPP expressly contemplates that the timeframes are minimums and may be exhibited for a longer period if the development is ‘likely to generate significant public interest based on the location, nature and or scale‘ at the discretion of the consent authority. The CPP does not provide any further guidance as to how a consent authority should determine whether or not a longer period is appropriate.

Further, we note that while new clause 21(2) has been inserted into Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the EPA Act to make it clear that the EPA Act may specify maximum or minimum periods for community consultation, no maximum periods have been specified.

Impacts

Savings and transitional provisions provide that the CPP only applies to development applications lodged after 1 September 2026. Where authorities have adopted participation plans that are integrated with other documents (such as development control plans or community engagement strategies), the parts of those documents that do not relate to community participation will still apply.

The CPP does not detail how, on a practical level, exhibition and notification is to take place, beyond providing examples of how engagement can occur. The CPP anticipates that that local councils will use their community engagement strategies to detail how they will implement and comply with the notification requirements in the CPP.

The CPP can be viewed and downloaded here: Statewide Community Participation Plan.

If you have any questions about this article, please leave a comment below or contact Dimitrious Havadjia or Adriana Kleiss.