
State Significant Infrastructure
Under Section 5.12 of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act), development may become State significant infrastructure (SSI) in two ways.
First, a State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) may declare any development, or class of development, to be SSI provided this development may be carried out without requiring development consent under Part 4 of the EP&A Act.
Schedule 3 of the State & Regional Development SEPP declares several general types of development to be SSI, including:
- activities by public authorities where the proponent is also the determining authority and the activity is likely to have a significant impact on the environment
- large-scale port, rail, water storage or water treatment facilities by (or on behalf) of public authorities
- pipelines either with or requiring a licence under the Pipelines Act 1967.
Second, specified development on specified land may be declared SSI by a SEPP or by the Minister for Planning making an order that amends a SEPP.
Schedule 4 of the State & Regional Development SEPP identifies a list of the specified development that has been declared SSI in this way and includes the development worth over $30 million in the Northern Beaches Hospital Precinct and the Albion Park Rail Bypass.
Critical State Significant Infrastructure
Under Section 5.13 of the EP&A Act, the Minister may declare any SSI to be Critical State Significant Infrastructure if he considers it to be essential to the State for economic, environmental or social reasons.
Schedule 5 of the State & Regional Development SEPP has a list of Critical State Significant Infrastructure projects, and includes:
- major transport projects such as the Pacific Highway Upgrade, WestConnex, the Sydney Metro Rail, Inland Rail and the F6 Extension
- major energy projects such as Snowy Hydro 2.0, Shoalhaven Pumped Hydro Expansion and Newcastle Gas-Fired Power Station.
Specific SSI or CSSI Projects
To find out more about specific SSI or CSSI projects click here.