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Planning Certificates – Scope of Councils’ Immunity from Liability Limited
In the recent decision of Lorenzato v Burwood Council [2020] NSWSC 1659 (‘Lorenzato‘), the Supreme Court considered the scope of the immunity from liability in negligence enjoyed by public authorities such as councils under various pieces of legislation. The Court…
New Land and Environment Court policy – COVID-19 Pandemic Arrangements Policy
The Acting Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court has published a new Court policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Arrangements Policy‘ (‘COVID-19 Policy‘) commenced on 23 March 2020, although it appears that it will…
High Level Decision Making – Limits on Judicial Review
Governments are regularly called upon to make decisions, and to enact programs, which require them to weigh numerous (often hundreds, or even thousands) of competing and conflicting interests. In doing so, decision-makers attempt to balance broad concepts of the public…
Short-Term Rental Accommodation Reforms
The New South Wales government recently exhibited the draft Short-Term Rental Accommodation (‘STRA’) regulatory framework. The framework is a response to the growing STRA industry, which is estimated to be worth more than $30bn nationally, and seeks to achieve consistency…
Clause 4.6 requests – further developments in the law
In an earlier post (here), we blogged about some developments in the law surrounding clause 4.6 requests. As flagged in our earlier blog, there was an apparent tension between the the approach adopted by Basten JA in Al Maha Pty…
Jurisdictional Prerequisites to Grant of Consent
This update will consider two recent decisions of the Land and Environment Court in which Commissioners, when determining appeals in Class 1 of the Court’s jurisdiction, declined to grant development consent on jurisdictional grounds.
UPDATE: Post-election agency restructures – Administrative Arrangements Order 2019
Following the return of the Coalition government on 23 March 2019, the Governor has issued Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes – Public Service Agencies) Order 2019, Administrative Arrangements (Administration of Acts—General) Order 2019 and Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes—Ministers) Order 2019 (together…
Deferred commencement consents – don’t let them lapse!
The decision of Preston CJ in Dennes v Port Macquarie-Hastings Council [2018] NSWLEC 95 (‘Dennes‘) confirms that, once the period for satisfaction of a deferred commencement condition has expired without the condition being satisfied, the consent cannot be revived on appeal against…
When should you decide a discount application for GIPA processing charges?
In the recent matter of Shoebridge v Office of Environment and Heritage [2018] NSWCATAP 144, the Appeal Panel of the NCAT considered whether a government agency was obliged to determine an application for a discount to a processing charge before…
Amendment of Minimum Subdivision Lot Size clauses in the Standard Instrument
The Standard Instrument – Principle Local Environmental Plan (‘Standard Instrument‘) has been amended to clarify that the minimum lot size development standard does not apply to either the subdivision of land by the registration of strata or community plans, or the subdivision…
ALERT – Restructure of EPA Act and Other Amendments Commence on 1 March 2018
As discussed in previous blogs, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (‘EPA Act‘) is about to undergo substantial amendment. The Department of Planning and Environment (‘DPE‘) has recently announced the timetable for the commencement of those amendments, and confirmed that some…
“Significant development” – a new avenue in FSR calculations?
An important consideration in the assessment of many development applications is whether the relevant floor space ratio (FSR) controls have been complied with.
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