THE New South Wales Government has announced the establishment of a new state-led approval pathway for major residential projects as well as a process for rezonings, bypassing the need for approval by councils.
With the changes aimed at cutting development times and speeding up the construction of new homes, a spokesperson for the City of Broken Hill welcomed the move.
“The legislative changes won’t have any effect on council at this stage, but there are potential benefits for the city in the long term,” the spokesperson said.
“If a large-scale housing development was to take place in the future these changes could streamline the process and make it quicker to get the project up and running and provide much-needed new housing.”
The reforms are set to come into effect in early 2025 following a short consultation period.
The new rules would be open to housing developments above an estimated development cost of $60 million, on average 100 or more homes, in the Greater Sydney area and a cost of about $30 million, 40 or more homes in regional NSW.
The process would be overseen by a newly created Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) to be set up within the State’s Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.
The HDA would include the secretary of the Premier’s Department Simon Draper, the secretary of the Department of Planning Kiersten Fishburn, and the CEO of Infrastructure NSW Tom Gellibrand.
Developments seeking to access the process would not be required to be considered by local councils and could potentially reduce planning processes by years.
