The Minster's Planning Principles and the New NSW Environmental Planning Policies
2nd March 2022
On 2 December 2021, the (then) Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes released a discussion paper that outlined nine focus areas to guide planning and development in NSW. (See: floods.org.au/submissions to read the paper.)
FMA Land Use Planning Director Paul Grech has provided the following explanation of the implications for flood risk management in NSW.
One of these nine principles was “4. Managing risks and building resilience in the face of hazards.” This principle regarding hazards included recognition of the need to reduce the risk and increase building resilience associated with flooding and climate change.
The NSW Department of Environment and Planning has subsequently consolidated 45 existing State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) into 11 policies that reflect the nine new principles, plus two general administrative SEPPs.
The Department also reorganised the existing Planning Circulars and Ministerial Directions under the nine theme-based on focus areas. The relevant new SEPP will be called State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and will replace:
State Environmental Planning Policy (Coastal Management) 2018;
State Environmental Planning Policy No 33—Hazardous and Offensive Development; and
State Environmental Planning Policy No 55—Remediation of Land.
The repeal of the 45 original SEPPs and commencement of the 11 new consolidated SEPPs occurred on 1 March 2022.
This consolidated new SEPP is effectively a house keeping measure and does not introduce any substantive changes to the legal provisions. Consequently the reorganisation of the SEPPs is only superficial and does not introduce any state planning policies regarding flood risk management or climate change.
This contrasts with, for example, Queensland that has adopted a single State Planning Policy (SPP) some time ago, outlining 17 state interests arranged under five broad themes including “safety and resilience to hazards.”
The Queensland SPP is also accompanied by SPP Guidance material that includes direction on how to consider natural hazards such as flooding when preparing planning schemes (the equivalent of Local Environmental Plans in NSW).
Hopefully the new NSW Resilience and Hazards SEPP is the commencement of an evolution of state level planning direction, that builds on the Minister’s Principles, consistent with that advocated by the FMA Position Policy on Floodplain Risk Management in Land Use Planning endorsed by Members in 2015 and updated in May 2021.
