NSW Planning Bill finalised and introduced into Parliament

Key Points:

The NSW Government has made important changes to the new planning regime, particularly to the complying development and code assessment model.

After a lengthy consultation process, the long-awaited Planning Bill 2013 was introduced into State Parliament on Tuesday.

According to the Government, changes have been made in response to the public comments, including to the triple bottom line so that environmental and social considerations are on the same level as economic growth when assessing development.

Other changes the Government identifies include:

• all heritage protections to stay in place and a new state planning policy for the environment and heritage to be developed;