Revised Voluntary Land Acquisition and Mitigation Policy and Amendments to the Mining SEPP

The Voluntary Land Acquisition and Mitigation Policy (VLAMP) was first published in December 2014. It explains how acquisition and mitigation rights are assigned to landholders in relation to State significant resource projects in NSW. Once the rights are granted they may be voluntarily triggered by landholders at any time. The consent holder is required to comply with these acquisition or mitigation requests.

Recent changes to the VLAMP 

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has revised its policies for noise and air quality impacts.

These changes triggered a review of the VLAMP to ensure the thresholds for the grant of voluntary acquisition and mitigation rights are consistent with the EPA's policies. As part of the review, a revised policy was placed on public exhibition between November 2017 and February 2018. Ten submissions were received during this period, which were considered by the Department and resulted in several minor changes to the VLAMP. 

The key changes to the VLAMP are: 

• Inclusion of the EPA’s revised assessment criteria for air and noise quality impacts:
  • air quality assessment criteria have been tightened, with the annual assessment criteria for coarse particles (PM10) changing from 30 µg/m3 to 25 µg/m3, and the introduction of new criteria for fine particles (PM2.5) at 25 µg/m3 (24-hour average) and 8 µg/m3 (annual average);
  • noise criteria have been adjusted, however no changes to cumulative noise levels were made and strong night-time noise protections were maintained.
• clearer and more thorough explanations of policy related to:
  • acquisition and mitigation operational processes;
  • the valuation of land that is to be acquired; and
  • the regulation of impacts on land subject to acquisition rights.

The revised VLAMP will apply to new applications made after the policy has commenced, existing applications that were not yet determined when the policy commenced, and modification applications that involve increases to the approved dust or noise impacts of a development. 

As a consequence of these changes the State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) 2007 (the Mining SEPP) has also been amended. 

• Clause 12AB of the Mining SEPP now aligns the non-discretionary standards with the EPA’s revised policies for air and noise. The non-discretionary standards restrict a consent authority from requiring more onerous air and noise standards than the revised assessment criteria; and
• Clause 12A of the Mining SEPP now refers to the revised VLAMP. This clause requires the consent authority to give consideration to the VLAMP before determining an application.

You can view the relevant documents below:

• Revised Voluntary Land Acquisition Mitigation Policy (PDF, 3.7 MB)
• FAQ for Voluntary Land Acquisition and Mitigation Policy (PDF, 990KB)
• Review of Voluntary Land Acquisition and Mitigation Policy (PDF, 1.21MB)