Building and development

Before carrying out any development, you must confirm if the proposed development is permissible on the reserve. To find this out, you need to consider the land-use zone that the local environmental plan applies to the site and how the development is categorised, specifically the land-use definition that applies under an environmental planning instrument.

Use the NSW Planning Portal to find the land-use zone that applies to the reserve. This will also tell you what local council area you’re in and what local environmental plan and other planning controls applies to the reserve you manage.

Once you’ve established what the zone of the reserve is, you need to check the local environmental plan to see if your proposal is permissible or prohibited within that zone. The zoning table will list developments by land-use definition. For example, a boat landing facility or a playground may be defined as a ‘tourist facility’, while a building or place owned or controlled by a reserve and used for public purposes could be a ‘community facility’.

You can access local environmental plans under Environmental Planning Instruments at In-force legislation.

Use the NSW Planning Portal to establish the zone of your reserve and generate the property report. This gives you a summary of the planning controls that apply to the site.

Reserve: R590109

Reserve Name: Carcoar Showground

Reserve Purpose: Public Recreation and Showground

Land-Use Zone: RE1 Public Recreation

Property Report: Example property report (PDF, 287 KB)

LEP: Blayney Local Environmental Plan 2012

The property report will identify any state environmental planning policies that apply to the reserve.

You can also find the zone and planning information by applying for a Section 10.7 certificate from the local council (this refers to section 10.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979). There is a fee to get the certificate from council. 

Environmental planning instruments will nominate certain types of development that are prohibited in each zone. Consent usually cannot be granted to prohibited developments. However, the State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) 2021 – also known as the Transport and Infrastructure SEPP – and the provisions for state-significant development and state-significant infrastructure allow for some exceptions that enable consent to be granted for prohibited development.

You cannot use the provisions of the Transport and Infrastructure SEPP without consulting the Department.

Once you’ve established if a development is permissible, you will have to determine what type of consent you need. We recommend you scope and design the concept for your proposed development before determining what type of consent is needed.

This section gives guidance on designing and carrying out a development.

If you plan to carry out development works such as building upgrades, a new building, or new assets or infrastructure, you must consider the impacts of that development. The following is a list of things to consider during the concept planning. The list is not exhaustive.

Consider:

• site constraints such as slope, flooding, bushfire classification, geo-technical
• heritage significance of the site, including built and cultural heritage
• impact on vegetation
• compatibility with adjoining development
• compatibility with visual setting (foreshore, streetscape)
• compatibility with land zoning
• size and shape of the land
• local planning objectives
• age and condition of buildings.

You should design and position developments to achieve the best and most efficient use of the land and the development itself, and to satisfy legislative and policy requirements. For example, it would be best to develop public amenities such as toilets, picnic tables and barbecues in one area. Similarly, developments need good road and parking access and should not require the clearing of vegetation. This results in a development that is more convenient for the public while also sustaining the surrounding land and environment.

To ensure the design of your development is suitable, it is a good idea to engage a suitably qualified person to help you. This may be a volunteer with planning or building experience. If your Crown land manager does not have a volunteer with these skillsets, we recommend that you engage a planning professional to help with the design of the development.

If a proposed development requires approval under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act), you must get landowner’s consent from the minister or the Department. This includes where a Crown land manager or tenure holder must lodge a development application or complying development certificate (planning approvals) on Crown land. There may be exceptions, where a kind of development is covered under section 2.23 of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 (CLM Act).

Section 2.23 of the CLM Act details kinds of low-impact development where the responsible minister is considered to have given landowner’s consent on behalf of the Crown. This means you would be able to lodge an application for planning approval under Part 4 of the EP&A Act.

When considering the need for landowner’s consent from the minister or Department, a Crown land manager or tenure holder must decide if the proposed development falls within the kinds of development set out in section 2.23(2) of the CLM Act. If the kind of development clearly fits within those listed, landowner’s consent is taken to be given (deemed). If you’re not certain whether the proposal would fall within the kinds of development for which landowner’s consent is deemed, contact the Department.

Where a tenure (lease or licence) contains a provision that requires the holder to get consent from the minister or Department to lodge a planning approval, this requirement will prevail over section 2.23.

For all other planning approvals that require landowner's consent, you must complete an Landowner's application form (PDF, 241 KB) and provide the necessary accompanying information, and pay a fee.

Crown land managers and tenure holders cannot provide landowner's consent for lodgement of an application for planning approval under Part 4 EP&A Act over Crown land.

Clearing of native vegetation may require development consent under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, regardless of the provisions of any environmental planning instruments. Native vegetation is indigenous to NSW. Clearing includes cutting down, felling, thinning, logging or removing native vegetation, or killing, destroying, poisoning, ringbarking, uprooting or burning native vegetation.

The local council manages approvals for clearing native vegetation in urban areas and for land zoned for environmental protection. You must get approval if you are proposing to clear vegetation in either of these areas.

In rural areas, Local Land Services manages approval for clearing of native vegetation. The Crown land manager should consult the relevant Local Land Service to decide which process is best suited to the reserve land, and the process to get approval.

Before any clearing activity can be approved by either the local council or Local Land Service, you must get written consent from the Department.

For more information on clearing of native vegetation, visit NSW Environment and Heritage.

Most types of development on a heritage item or in a heritage conservation area will need to be approved in line with the provisions of the Heritage Act 1977. You do this through a development application process.

Development of heritage items or within heritage conservation areas needs to apply the basic principles and procedures of conserving heritage places. You can apply these principles and procedures to a monument, a courthouse, a garden, a shell midden, a rock art site, a cottage, a road, a mining or archaeological site, a whole district or a region.

The Burra Charter defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of heritage places. It has been adopted as the standard for best practice in the conservation of heritage places in Australia.

When carrying out works on a heritage item or within a heritage conservation area, you need to engage a suitably qualified person. Visit the NSW Environment and Heritage website for more information.

Aboriginal cultural heritage refers to places, objects and stories that are significant for Aboriginal people and the story of New South Wales.

Visit Aboriginal interests for more information.

You will need an environmental impact assessment for developments that are permitted without consent and are done by a public authority, are done on public land, and/or require some other type of approval from a public authority. This is in line with the provisions of Part 5 of the EP&A Act. Note that development categorised as ‘permitted without consent’ differs from ‘exempt development’ and ‘complying development’.

Developments that require environmental assessment under Part 5 of the EP&A Act are called ‘activities.’ The definition of ‘activity’ is similar to that for ‘development’.

The State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) 2021 designates several types of infrastructure and works as ‘development permitted without consent’ when they are carried out by public authorities. The council must notify the Department in writing of the development details before carrying out the activity where a council Crown land manager:

• proposes to carry out such development
• that development involves the construction of large or significant permanent structures on a Crown reserve (for example, roads, car parks, visitors’ centres, maintenance depots, and outdoor recreation facilities such as skate parks).
• An environmental assessment required under Part 5 of the EP&A Act must ‘examine and take into account to the fullest extent possible all matters affecting or likely to affect the environment’. This is designed to encourage both the applicant and the decision-maker to consider what measures can be adopted to minimise the proposal’s environmental impact.

The factors that must be considered include:

• conservation agreements and plans of management under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974
• joint management agreements under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016
• the effect on any wilderness area
• the effect on Areas of Outstanding Biodiversity Value; threatened species, populations and ecological communities and their habitats; and protected native plants and animals
• all environmental and related factors set out in Part 8 Infrastructure and environmental impact assessment of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021.

Where the activity is likely to have significant impacts or significantly affect the environment (including critical habitat) or threatened species, populations or ecological communities or their habitats, added procedures will apply. This includes the possibility that the proposal:

• will require an environmental impact statement and/or a species impact statement, and/or
• become a 'state-significant project', subject to assessment by the department administering the EP&A Act under Part 4.1 of the EP&A Act.

We encourage Crown land managers to contact the Department for more advice and help.