The Minister for Planning has delegated his power to make a number of decisions to senior officers of the department.
The department has delegation to make decisions on:
- state significant development applications, state significant infrastructure applications and other development applications where there are less than 50 unique objections, the local council has not objected and no relevant political donation disclosures have been made
- applications to modify State significant development, State significant infrastructure and other development applications where no relevant political donation disclosures have been made
- ‘Gateway’ decisions on local environmental plans (LEPs) – usually to decide whether the LEP can proceed to public exhibition
- approvals or refusals of LEPs.
Decisions
Decisions on state significant development, state significant infrastructure, other development applications and modification applications, are available at Major Projects.
Decisions on LEPs are available from Planning Proposals Online. For all LEPs that have been formalised, visit NSW legislation.
Development assessment delegations
- Instrument of Delegation – signed 9 March 2021 (PDF, 6 MB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates the Minister's development assessment functions under the EP&A Act 1979 and the EP&A Regulation 2021 to the Department of Planning and Environment.
- Instrument of Delegation (signed 11 May 2022 (PDF, 396 KB) – Secretary, Department of Planning and Environment – this instrument delegates the Secretary's development assessment functions under the EP&A Act 1979 and the EP&A Regulation 2021 to Department of Planning and Environment staff.
Plan-making delegations
- Local environmental plan decision delegations (PDF, 141 KB) from the Minister dated 17 August 2021.
- Local environmental plan decision delegations (PDF, 1.3 MB) from the Secretary.
Consent authority functions in Sydney Harbour
The Minister for Planning has consent authority functions for development in the Sydney Harbour Foreshores and Waterways Area under State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021. These functions are delegated to the relevant council or Transport for NSW.
Instrument of Delegation – signed 21 November 2022 (PDF, 502 KB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates the Minister's consent authority functions under section 6.25 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021 to:
- the council for the local government area (LGA) where the proposed development is located or – if the development is to be carried out on land not within an LGA – to the council of the LGA nearest to the development site
- Transport for NSW.