10 August 2011
The NSW Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, has announced that he is loosening “Labor’s straightjacket on planning” by launching a new review of the Standard Instrument. The review will be carried out by a “Local Planning Panel” which will have an “independent” chair approved by both the Local Government and Shires Association and the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.
Mr Hazzard says that there is state-wide frustration among NSW councils with the Standard Instrument (which is used as a template for all new local environmental plans). He did not mention the many concerns that developers have with the Standard Instrument.
Under the Standard Instrument, business and industrial land that was previously available for retail development, fast food outlets, large format hardware stores and office development faces prohibitions and/or heavier restrictions. Some residential land has also faced down-zoning (particularly from medium density to low density). Some land, particulary rural land, faces more restrictive environmental zonings.
The original promise of the Standard Instrument was that the new plans would be simpler. However, the City of Sydney’s proposed new high prescriptive plan is 524 pages – longer than the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act (92 pages), the state’s Food Act (104 pages) and even the Stamp Duties Act (238 pages).
What’s more, the Standard Instrument process has almost come to a complete standstill, even before Mr Hazzard’s latest announcement.
In 2006, the former government promised that 155 new plans would be in place by 2011, but in 2009 was forced to revise that commitment with a new, less ambitious timeline for the finalisation of just 67 plans. Under this revised timeline, council plans had been identified as a “priority LEPs” list and was to be finalised by June 2011. This priority list remains on the Department of Planning and Infrastructure website accessed from here.
We have compared the 2009 revised list of LEPs against the list of LEPs actually gazetted and the results will be of no surprise to many of us. Sadly, only 23 standard instrument compliant LEPs of the 67 priority LEPs have been gazetted. The following summarises the situation:
- In the Sydney Region West Auburn, Camden, Penrith and Wollondilly are complete, but Blacktown, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Holroyd and Parramatta are not.
- In the Sydney Region East Burwood (town centre), Lane Cove, Ryde and Waverley (Bondi Junction town centre) are complete, but Botany Bay, Hurstville, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Mosman, North Sydney, Rockdale, Sydney City, Warringah and Willoughby are not.
- In the Hunter/Central Coast, Gloucester and Greater Taree are complete, but Cessnock, Gosford, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle and Wyong are not.
- In the Northern region, Bellingen, Nambucca, Port Macquarie, Hastings and Tamworth are complete, but Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and the Tweed are not.
- In the Southern region, Albury, Coolamon, Temora, Tumbarumba, Upper Lachlan, Wagga Wagga, Wingecarribee and Wollongong are complete, but Bega Valley, Eurobodalla, Kiama, Queanbeyan, Shellharbour and Shoalhaven are not.
- In the Western region, Balranald and Mid Western are complete, but Bathurst, Bland, Dubbo, Forbes, Murray, Orange and Wentworth are not.
This once again highlights the importance of the “spot” rezoning process to both the development industry and the wider community, dependant on new residential, commercial, retail and office development.
In our response to the government’s announcement of a review, we have said:
- Consultation must not just be limited to local councils, as implied by the Minister’s media release. One of the reasons there have been so many problems with zoning plans, is that the Planning Department has only consulted other regulators – such as councils – without talking to the people actually impacted by zoning rules.
- The government should consider special arrangements to ensure that any pending rezonings are not slowed down by this review. Whenever a review is commenced, there’s always a risk that public servants will down-tools and wait for an outcome. Given the length of time that even the swiftest reviews tend to take, the government should take firm steps to ensure that any pending rezonings are still quickly processed. That may mean proceeding with rezoning on a “spot” basis, rather than waiting for comprehensive plans to be finalised.
The Government’s media release is here.
