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State Significant Infrastructure

SSI Projects

Identifying projects that are important or essential for NSW

What is State significant infrastructure?

Under Section 5.12 of the Environmental Planning and 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 Planning Systems 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 Planning Systems 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 Planning Systems 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.
Guideline: Declaration of SSI and CSSI

The Guideline: Declaration of SSI and CSSI sets out the general principles and key reasons for the Minister to declare development as SSI or CSSI.

Specific SSI or CSSI projects

To find out more about specific SSI or CSSI projects click here.

Last updated: 14/09/2022

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