Community participation plans

We want to make it easy for all members of the community to participate in planning decisions. This results in better outcomes.

Planning authorities, including councils and NSW agencies with key planning approval functions, must have a Community participation plan. The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 requires this.

Community participation plans set out how the planning authority will engage the public in their decision-making. These principles set the standard.

Community participation plans must meet the minimum requirements for community participation set out in Schedule 1 of the Act, but planning authorities may choose to do more.

The Act also requires planning decision-makers to publicise the reasons for their decisions on key matters and show how they considered community views.

Councils may build their community participation plans into the broader community engagement strategies they prepare under local government legislation.

Changes to the community participation plan

In September 2025, the Department made changes to its Community participation plan (PDF, 1.9 MB). 

Accelerating the assessment and delivery of housing

A minimum 14-day exhibition period now applies to relevant residential State significant development applications. There is flexibility to extend exhibition period timeframes for more complex applications to allow more time for consultation with the community and stakeholders when required.

The minimum 14-day exhibition period also applies to residential State significant development applications that rely on a concurrent rezoning assessed by the Department.

Extended exhibition periods will be considered when a project:

• involves a complex concurrent rezoning, or
• is wholly prohibited in the relevant land use zone(s), or
• would otherwise be designated development.

The Department has robust measures in place to ensure effective community consultation, including:

• Written notification to adjoining landowners.
• Online publication of key documents on the NSW Planning Portal.
• Transparent management and publication of submissions in accordance with the Department’s submissions policy.
• Asking the applicant to respond to the issues raised in submissions in a submissions report.
• Applicant engagement with stakeholders during environment impact statement (EIS) preparation in line with the Undertaking Engagement Guidelines.

Alpine Region and Activation Precincts

The Community Participation Plan has been updated to include Appendix 1 – Matters not requiring exhibition. Development applications that meet specific criteria in the Alpine Region and Activation Precincts will no longer require public exhibition. Where exhibitions are not required, the application will be assessed on its urgency, scale and nature.

For more information, please visit the NSW Planning Portal.

Read our Community participation plan (PDF, 1.9 MB) and some of our community engagement case studies.

Planning authorities must make the reasons for their planning decisions publicly available. Stakeholders can see how their input, and that of others, was considered. This makes the process more transparent and increases community confidence.

The statement of reasons must be meaningful, reflecting the complexity of the proposed development and setting out how decision-makers considered community views.

Our guidelines for local councils and other consent authorities (PDF, 324 KB) explain the best way to publicise decisions.