By Josie Walker -
Snapshot
- The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Act 2017 was enacted on 23 November 2017. It contains a suite of amendments that will affect every part and division of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
- Planning authorities will be required to prepare Community Consultation Plans, which may supplement the public participation requirements of the Act.
- Local councils will be required to prepare Local Strategic Planning Statements setting out planning priorities for their local area.
- The Land and Environment Court will be empowered to declare construction certificates and complying development certificates invalid on specified grounds.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Act 2017 (‘the Amending Act’) was enacted on 23 November 2017. It contains a suite of amendments that will affect every part and division of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (‘the Act’). There will also be a restructuring of the Act, with all sections re-numbered using a decimal system.
However, the changes are not revolutionary. For the most part they extend and build on amendments that have been made over the past decade. Key amendments likely to be of interest to practitioners will occur in the areas of public participation, local plan-making, certification and enforcement. At the time of writing, these amendments had not yet commenced. References below are to the provisions in the Amending Act, unless otherwise specified.
