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ARTICLE · 20 DECEMBER 2018

When land acquisition may cost councils more than market value

Councils must be aware that in hardship applications they may need to pay landowners more than market value for the land.

AustraliaGovernment, Public Sector

When I spoke at the recent Local Government Property Professionals Conference on owner-initiated hardship applications, a couple of key points arose around hardship applications.

Public purpose: Acquisition provisions must operate meaningfully and effectively.

In Calarco and Anor v Liverpool City Council [2018] NSWSC 217, the Supreme Court made it clear that the hardship provisions of Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 are intended to operate in a practical and realistic fashion.

In this case, the plaintiffs, Giuseppe and Antonetta Calarco, owned a parcel of land in Australia composed of two portions. One portion was zoned RE1 Public Recreation and the other zoned SP2 Infrastructure and marked "Local Drainage" under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Sydney Region Growth Centres) 2006.

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