Urbis Think Tank
Major Project Approvals (Part 3A) at a Standstill
Despite the passing of 3 weeks since the NSW election, uncertainty remains with Major Project Approvals process. While this uncertainty continues, the planning processes in the NSW Department of Planning seemingly remain at a standstill. This is now causing growing delays and uncertainty for the development industry.
As has been reported in the media, the NSW Government appears to be moving quickly towards drafting an amendment to the Major Projects SEPP to remove the Part 13 development (for commercial, residential, retail and coastal projects) from the SEPP and therefore from Part 3A of the Act. The removal of Part 13 of Schedule 1 of the SEPP is entirely expected given that it represents the majority of applications that have raised public interest and controversy.
There are significant unresolved questions concerning the transitional arrangements for existing Part 3A applications. The Department is yet to advise which of the Part 13 applications will be ‘accepted’ and continue to be processed under Part 3A and which will not. There has been much speculation as to what stage a Part 3A application may have to reach in order to be ‘saved’ and continue to be processed. On the one hand, it has been suggested that applications that have received DGEARs will be ‘safe’, while having only received a Clause 6 Declaration is unlikely to be sufficient. While not being absolutely certain, it’s reasonable to expect that those applications that have an EA submitted and are under adequacy assessment, through to those awaiting determination, will continue to be considered under Part 3A.
A casualty of the current hiatus is the processing of new requests for amendments to existing approvals under section 75W of the Act. New applications for modifications are not being processed and exhibited as required even though they may not be of any significance or controversy. This delay is creating unreasonable delays for applicants and in some cases impacting on approvals currently being acted upon. The delay in processing modification requests may indicate that these requests may no longer be assessed by the Department of Planning and will be delegated to the relevant Council for assessment and determination. If this was to be the case this could cause significant delays and uncertainty for applicants.
The Department of Planning has advised that the current delegations to staff to determine applications are still in place, but are not being exercised. No decision under delegated authority will be made without the Director General first consulting with the Minister. With the Minister having been recently ill and out of action, this must be causing delays to even the simplest of consent matters.
There is also speculation that the PAC will play a far more dominant role in the determination of the remaining Part 3A applications, with the Minister playing a hands off role. With the indications of the Government providing transparent decision making processes, it is possible that the PAC may become more public in its role including the adoption of public hearing and determination processes, not unlike the current operation of the JRPP’s.
It is time for the NSW Government to provide some certainty for the development industry on the amendments to the SEPP and the transitional arrangements to be applied. There are a significant number of development projects in the pipeline as well as numerous applications for amendments to existing approvals. The current uncertainty and delays do nothing but act as a drag on the NSW economy.
Written By Tim Blythe, Urbis Regional Director, NSW
http://www.urbis.com.au/our-people/tim-blythe