The intention behind the changes is to facilitate development by removing environmental protections within the Act.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act is New South Wales’ primary legislation for land use planning and development assessment. It governs environmental planning instruments like State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) and Local Environmental Plans (LEPs).
Key purposes of the Act are to promote sustainable development, protect the environment, ensures community participation, and assesses development impacts via consents and environmental impact statements. It also provides pathways for exempt, complying, local, state-significant, and designated projects.
Planned changes will be decided without public consultation and with no detailed explanatory material.
One of the many changes is a new assessment pathway (“targeted development assessment”) that is “unconstrained and expressly prohibits consideration of environmental impacts and the public interest.” note the EDO.
The Act containing the changes purports to relate to housing, but will affect ALL types of development across NSW.
There are many other changes to the Act, please refer the Environmental Defenders Office briefing note linked here.
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Caldera Environment Centre
42 Wollumbin Street, Murwillumbah
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