New Major Project Approval Pathway Opens in NSW

A new pathway to approval for major residential projects opened in NSW this week through the new Housing Delivery Authority.

The authority was part of major reforms to state and council planning for state significant development applications that came into effect from January 8.

The new assessment pathway is expected to reduce the number of large, complex development applications submitted to councils and free up their resources for smaller applications.

Development projects costing more than $60 million in Greater Sydney and $30 million in regional NSW are eligible to submit expressions of interest to the authority.

That EoI process would be opened each month under the plan, and projects reviewed by a concurrent rezoning process.

Criteria for the new pathway includes high-yield housing proposals, compliant projects, short construction start timeframes, projects near infrastructure, and those that complement the state’s significant rezoning policy.

The EoI would be reviewed by the authority for the minister to declare if it was state significant, then an industry-specific Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements would be issued within seven days.

The developer would then lodge an application with DPHI within nine months and the concurrent assessment would begin. 

The project would go on public exhibition before the minister or delegate could approve it, all within 275 days.

Leading the Housing Delivery Authority are NSW Premier department secretary Simon Draper, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure secretary Kiersten Fishburn and Infrastructure NSW chief executive Tom Gellibrand.

However, developers are still able to follow existing development approval pathways for the time.