Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Bill 2025

This much anticipated legislation provides necessary amendments to further streamline the planning system, support the delivery of housing and provide certainty to the construction industry, local communities and other stakeholders.

Some of the key changes include:

• Implementation of less formal meeting arrangements for the Housing Delivery Authority, given its mandate to deliver high-quality housing advice to government more quickly.

• More efficient assessment and determination processes – reduce the minimum exhibition period for certain residential SSD applications to 14 days and only submissions received during a public exhibition period will count towards appeal rights, though late submissions may still be considered in assessments.

• Enables the Planning Minister to decare housing targets (and timeframes) for regions and LGAs.

• Amends modification requirements/powers to align with the decision of Ku-Ring-Gai Council v Buyozo Pty Ltd. This enables modifications to simply amend conditions of consent where there is no physical change to the development.

• Proponents are no longer required to submit concurrent modifications to concept development consents, providing greater flexibility for detailed development applications where there is inconsistency between detailed DAs and concept DAs.

• Confirms that consent authorities have the power to impose conditions requiring the modification or surrender of a concept approval when assessing a subsequent development application.

• Enables all environmental planning instruments, not just local environmental plans, to impose affordable housing contributions as a condition of development consent. However, there must be a need for affordable housing within the area.

• Outdated references to the Six Cities Region and district plans have been removed, paving the way for a new regional strategic plan for Greater Sydney.

The bill is now awaiting assent. We eagerly await its implementation.

At Mecone, we are committed to keeping our clients informed about legislative changes that impact the planning landscape. For detailed insights into how these amendments may affect your projects, please reach out to our team at info@mecone.com.au