A planetarium, aged care facilities and thousands of new homes are among $17 billion worth of developments approved by independent planning panels in the last financial year to aid the State’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Rob Stokes said the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s (DPIE) work to streamline the panels was part of reforms to reduce assessment times and had paved the way for approximately 27,000 new homes across the State.
“Hundreds of new projects are in the pipeline because of these vital reforms which have helped independent planning panels clear their backlogs without compromising rigorous assessment processes,” Mr Stokes said.
“Collectively, Sydney, regional and local planning panels approved 1,497 development applications (DAs) during the 2020-21 financial year – worth $17 billion to the NSW economy,” he said.
Mr Stokes said resolving uncertainty in the planning system had been an important focus for the DPIE and, over the past 12 months, regional planning panels and local councils worked together to clear the decks of DAs that “had been stuck in the system for too long”.
The Minister said planning panels were made up of independent experts in fields such as planning; architecture; heritage; environment; urban design; economics; traffic and transport; law and Government; and public administration.
“Panels also include representatives from local communities to ensure issues and considerations important in those places are captured in the panels’ deliberations,” Mr Stokes said.