The Environmental Planning and Assessment and Electoral
Legislation Amendment (Planning Panels and Enforcement) Act
2017 (NSW) (the Local Planning Panel Act) and the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Staged
Development Applications) Act 2017 (NSW) (the Staged
Development Act) received royal assent and came into operation on
14 August 2017.
Exclusion of Councillors from development decisions
The Local Planning Panel Act requires all local councils located
wholly within the Greater Sydney Region and the City of Wollongong
to establish a local planning panel. Other councils can also
establish local planning panels, but it is not mandatory for them
to do so.
Where a local planning panel has been constituted, the Council
itself will have no authority to determine any development
applications and all development applications will either need to
be dealt with under delegation, by the local planning panel, or by
the relevant regional panel.
