Standard conditions of consent

We are working with our stakeholders to create a simpler planning system, reduce assessment times and make it easier to invest in NSW.

Introducing standard conditions of development consent is an initiative under the NSW Planning Reform Action Plan. Standard conditions will be available to be used by all councils when approving development applications and will help speed up assessment timeframes, provide greater consistency and certainty and make development consents easier to navigate. This will free up councils to focus on the more complex aspects of development assessment and compliance.

Standard conditions for certain development

We have developed best practice standard conditions to help achieve certainty and consistency for builders, developers, investors and certifiers who work across multiple local government areas.

The conditions are for residential development, mixed use, change of use, food and drink premises, demolition and biodiversity credits. In many cases, these conditions can also be used for other types of development. The standard conditions represent best practice and should be used where relevant. They are not mandatory. The prescribed conditions in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (sections 69-75 and 81-86) are mandatory.

Draft standard conditions for agritourism

We have developed draft standard conditions of consent for agritourism development (PDF, 281 KB) for councils to review and provide feedback.

Feedback can be provided to [email protected] by 10 November 2023.

Writing guide for conditions

We released a writing guide to help consent authorities prepare appropriate, well-structured and legally enforceable conditions and development consents.

Standard format of notices of determination

For development applications lodged on or after 30 June 2023, councils will be required to use the standard format notice of determination on the NSW Planning Portal for local DAs or when exercising consent authority functions of a Sydney district or regional planning panel on behalf of the panel. Introducing a standard format will provide greater consistency and make development consents easier to navigate.

Webinar

You can view a webinar on the policy and legislative updates for the standard conditions of consent project. The webinar outlines:

• updates on the standard conditions project
• standard format Notice of Determination
• changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021
• the updated guide to writing conditions of consent
• preparing bespoke conditions
• training and resources for councils
• the implementation program and training on changes to the NSW Planning Portal.

View the webinar