Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Amendment Order 2016

The NSW Government has approved amendments to simplify and clarify four aspects of the Standard Instrument Principal Local Environmental Plan (SILEP) template used by councils throughout NSW. These amendments give councils, businesses, religious organisations and local communities greater consistency and certainty on: - the zoning of garden centres; - the zoning of hardware and building supplies; - the zoning of places of public worship; - the definitions of “building height” and “livestock processing industry”. The amendments: - add “hardware and building supplies” and “garden centres” to the mandatory uses permitted with consent in IN1 General Industrial, IN2 Light Industrial and B7 Business Park zones; - add “places of public worship” to the mandatory uses permitted with consent in IN1 General Industrial and IN2 Light Industrial zones; - amend the definition “building height” to allow height of buildings to be measured relative to a known datum; and - amend the definition of “livestock processing industry” to remove the phrase “derived principally from surrounding districts”. Adding garden centres and hardware and building supplies to the list of mandated uses allowed in business park, general industrial and light industrial zones brings greater consistency to local planning across NSW, provides investment certainty to business and support jobs. The places of public worship amendment makes land of sufficient size available to new places of public worship. Clarifying the definitions of “building height” and “livestock processing industry” makes these aspects of the current planning system easier to interpret and apply. Importantly, animal welfare and transportation protections remain in other relevant legislation. The proposed amendment also sought to clarify the meaning of the ‘minimum subdivision lot size’ rule. As a result of feedback from councils during the exhibition, the Government agreed to defer this amendment to allow for further consultation with councils and stakeholders. To help ensure consistency across the State’s planning rules, the Government has also amended two policies - State Environmental Planning Policy (Western Sydney Employment Area) 2009 and State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Development) 2005. “Hardware and building supplies”, “garden centres” and “places of public worship” will be allowed with consent in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Western Sydney Employment Area) 2009 IN1 General Industrial zone. The land use table in the Major Development SEPP for the Greystanes and Huntingwood West precincts allows “hardware and building supplies”, “garden centres” and “places of public worship” in IN1 and IN2 zones and “hardware and building supplies” and “garden centres” in B7 zones.