Establishing the Development Coordination Authority (DCA)

The Development Coordination Authority (DCA) is being established to coordinate and centralise state agency advice in the development assessment process – and make the planning system faster and easier to navigate. 

The DCA was formally established in December 2025, but its main functions will start from July 2026 when it will operate as a one-stop shop for expert inputs from the NSW Government on development applications and planning proposals. 

The DCA will provide a single front door to help homeowners, councils, developers and other users get in touch with the right part of the NSW Government to resolve planning matters, eliminating the need to navigate up to 22 different areas of government. 

To facilitate the functions and operations of DCA, changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (EP&A Regulation) and various environmental planning instruments are needed. 

We sought feedback on the proposed changes which include introducing: 

• A new framework for statutory inputs on development applications (DAs), which consolidates more than 800 triggers for concurrences or consultation with government agencies and other bodies spread across 175 planning instruments in a single place.
• Earlier checking of whether statutory inputs are needed, including verification by DCA.
• A single 28-day timeframe for DCA and other bodies to provide input on DAs; and
• A simpler, fairer fee structure. 

The proposed changes are part of a landmark overhaul of the State’s planning system designed to tackle delays and complexity adding to construction costs and make it faster, fairer and more modern.  

The proposed changes were on exhibition from Thursday, 29 January until 5pm on Wednesday 25 February 2026.

Thank you to those that made a submission. Your feedback is valuable and will help identify and address potential risks and operational issues early, ensuring a smoother rollout of DCA. A submissions report will be available on this page once the review is complete.

Webinar video

Thank you to those that joined our webinar information sessions. For those that were unable to attend, this is a recording of the DCA webinar from Thursday, 12 February 2026.

More information