The Department of Planning and Environment proposed changes to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 to make planning controls consistent for outdoor shooting ranges across NSW. The changes proposed were to existing legal shooting facilities to ensure they would be permitted in their current land use zone. It was proposed that legal ranges would be allowed to expand their ‘range danger’ area – the buffer zone around a shooting range – onto adjoining land under certain conditions. The proposed changes aimed to create consistency across the development controls of all NSW councils, helping ensure the reasonable operation and potential modification of existing legal shooting facilities. The proposed changes also aimed to make it easier for range operators to meet the NSW Firearms Registry’s requirements for establishing a safety buffer around the active or ‘live’ parts of a shooting range. The NSW Government received 86 submissions during a community consultation on a draft policy proposing that existing legal shooting ranges could be a permitted use on adjoining land, if that land was zoned as one of six specified zones. In response to feedback, the draft policy was reviewed. Provisions were narrowed to only allow the range danger area to be expanded into bordering land use zones. The provisions did not permit the expansion of the active parts of a shooting range. The provisions would have permitted development on existing shooting ranges with council consent. The specified zones the range danger area could expand included: Primary Production Rural Landscape Public Recreation Private Recreation Environmental Conservation Environmental Management Forestry Primary Production Small Lots It was proposed that a shooting club would have to submit a development application to the local council to modify or expand an existing shooting range. The community consultation closed on Monday 18 April 2016. Submissions are now being reviewed.
Explanation of Intended Effect Shooting Ranges SEPP 2016.pdf