By Mark Cottom
Many will be aware of the fact that legislation repealing the
controversial Part 3A from the planning system passed State
Parliament recently. This legislation has since been followed
by an announcement from the Minister for Planning and
Infrastructure that a comprehensive review of the State's
planning legislation would be conducted over the next 18
months.
As passed by Parliament, the principal provisions of the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Part 3A
Repeal) Act 2011 commenced on 1 October 2011 so that Part 3A
has now been wiped from the statute books. However, before
that date another provision of the amending Act, which has perhaps
not received as much publicity as the principal provisions, had
already commenced on 26 August 2011. This provision has the
important effect of postponing the staged repeal of the existing
Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation until 1 September
2013. The existing Regulation had