Planning Minister Rob Stokes said proposed amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 will target delays in Development Application (DA) processing by councils. The proposed amendments also aim to enhance community confidence in the planning system.
The proposed changes include standardising the format of the council’s development control plans, making them easier to understand and navigate.
The reforms, which are on public exhibition until 10 March 2017, aim to give developers incentives to resolve objections before lodging their DAs. They also aim to focus councillor attention on strategic planning with greater numbers of DA assessments being processed by staff or local planning panels.
Stokes said NSW was experiencing the longest housing construction boom in its history, with the latest figures for the 12 months to October showing 74,577 approvals, the second highest on record.
“The NSW Government is determined to do everything it can, including making the planning system more efficient, to ensure housing supply gets to homebuyers fast,” he said.
He noted that the planning reforms would help the NSW government deliver the 725,000 new homes that are forecasted to be required by 2036 to house an additional 1.7 million residents.
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