19 December 2013
The inclusion of large industrial buildings and significant commercial additions to the NSW complying codes will reduce red tape and speed up approvals, says the Urban Taskforce.
“Industrial buildings up to 20,000 m2 and commercial additions up to 2,500 m2 will be assessed as complying development under the changes announced to the Complying Development Code by the Minister for Planning,” says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. “The conditions require these buildings to be in appropriate zones with setbacks to residential development where necessary.”
“This is a good move by the NSW Government to speed up approvals of projects that create jobs and boost the NSW economy. While the industrial building areas sound large they are generally located in industrial estates where these sizes are normal.”
“These changes to the planning system were originally mooted two years ago and it does seem to have taken a long time for relatively uncontroversial improvements to the planning system to have reached the implementation stage. No doubt the broader planning reforms have taken precedence but there are many improvements like these changes to the Complying Code that can be made to the planning system.”
“With the planning reforms on hold, the Urban Taskforce believes further changes can be made to the Complying Code to fast track development. The next building type should be apartments up to 25 metres in height. These buildings fit below the height that requires costly fire sprinklers and are therefore economically feasible. They are also of a height that fits under the canopy of typical eucalyptus trees. The Complying Code could define setbacks and open space requirements and require SEPP 65 criteria for design issues.”
“With Code Assessable approaches to planning proposals being not supported in the NSW parliament the Exempt and Complying Code can easily be extended to include more building types as shown by the inclusion of industrial buildings as big as 2 hectares.”
