The NSW Parliament passed the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Part 3A Repeal) Act 2011 on 22 June, bringing to an end the old Part 3A regime and ushering in a new one.

We highlighted some of the key features of the Part 3A Repeal Act shortly after it was introduced into Parliament. The Bill was passed with only a few amendments, most of them proposed by the Government in response to stakeholder comments.

We don't yet know when the new Act will commence, only that it will be on a date to be proclaimed. Given the NSW Government's speed in delivering on its election promise to repeal Part 3A, and the importance of the issue, we would expect it to come into operation fairly soon.

Other parts of the new regime are also being unveiled. When introducing the Bill into Parliament late last week, the Government released the:

It has also delegated certain of the Minister's powers and functions to the NSW Planning Assessment Commission, as was foreshadowed in the Part 3A transitional arrangements released in May.

We are now awaiting some Regulations and the proposed State Environmental Planning Policy (State and Regional Development) 2011, which will give effect to the new planning approval regimes in the Act.

We will provide more detailed analysis of the Act and its implications for the public and private sectors in our next edition of Insights, which will be issued shortly.

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