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Commencement of Development Consents: Requirement for Registration on the NSW Planning Portal
With the commencement of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning Portal) Regulation 2020 on 1 July 2020, the NSW planning portal became the central platform for the making of development applications (and other applications) with a consent authority. To…
COVID-19 – Investigations via AVL
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Acts were amended to enable authorised officers and investigation officers to take evidence and answers to questions by audio link or audio visual link. Those provisions were repealed on 13 November…
Council investigation notices: what to do with the information received?
A recent decision in Land and Environment Court confirms that a prosecutor can use information obtained under a compulsory investigative notice for the purposes of gathering further evidence in prosecution proceedings. In this case the Court rejected a argument that…
When is excluded information under the GIPA Act really excluded?
The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 is generally assumed to have been designed to open up government information to the public. Nevertheless, the Act identifies broad categories of ‘excluded information‘ of certain agencies which are subject to a conclusive presumption…
UPDATE – Extension of COVID Prescribed Period and Special Provisions
We previously posted a blog regarding the enactment of the COVID-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures) Act 2020 (Emergency Measures Act) which amended various statutes including the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) and the Local Government Act 1993…
Powers of entry to residential land clarified
This decision relates to the latest instalment of the cases involving members of the Bobolas family and Waverley Council (‘Council‘) with the Council issuing orders to require or allow the clean-up of the accumulation of waste that creates a public…
Exempt development creates practical problems for enforcement
The Land and Environment Court (LEC) was recently required to consider whether certain work was exempt as ‘minor’ works under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 (Codes SEPP). The issue arose in the course of…
ALERT – NSW Planning System Reforms
The NSW Government revealed the NSW Planning Reform Action Plan (‘Action Plan‘) last week. The Action Plan aims to help boost the recovery of the economy, reduce planning assessment times, reduce red tape and create a user-friendly planning system. Speaking…
UPDATE: COVID-19 Pandemic Arrangements Policy – Land and Environment Court
The Land and Environment Court of NSW (‘Court’) has updated its COVID-19 Pandemic Arrangements Policy (‘Policy’). The Policy commenced Wednesday, 8 July 2020 and replaces the previous Policy made on 23 March 2020. A summary of the key changes are…
Amendments to the EPA Regulation- NSW Planning Portal
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning Portal) Regulation 2020 commenced on 1 July 2020 and introduced some important changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000. The amendments require the use of the NSW planning portal as the central…
Land Categorisation for Rating Purposes: When is the dominant use ‘mining’?
The Land and Environment Court has recently considered whether land surrounding an open cut mine and in the same ownership as the mine but used for grazing and cropping activities and as an offset for the coal mine was properly…
Characterising Accessways to Development
We have previously blogged about the task of characterising an access way to a development. In the recent case of Ballina Shire Council v Palm Lake Works [2020] NSWLEC 41, the Court considered whether an access way to a proposed seniors…
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