1 December 2023 release: BASIX, Online DA service, State DA, Payment adjustment service and NSW Planning Portal APIs

BASIX service

The main enhancements for this release include:

• Ability to submit eligible applications using the pre-1 October BASIX standards. 
• Information on the BASIX certificate is consistent with the project details and reflects changes to previous selections. This includes rainwater tank or solar connections, thermal performance selections and the local government area. 
• Wall details for the project can be entered in the thermal performance section, after changing from DIY to simulation method. 
• Information displayed when changing the number of bedrooms primarily lit by fluorescent or LED lamps is accurate.
• Display of information in the thermal performance section for pre-1 October BASIX standards projects, including the DIY method status and score bars. 
• BASIX completion receipts can be downloaded when accessed via the advanced search. 
   

Online DA service and State DA service

To align with the introduction of the Housing and Productivity Contribution development fee was brought into effect by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Housing and Productivity Contribution) Bill 2023, changes have been made to functionality in the NSW Planning Portal.

The functionality applies to certain residential, commercial and industrial developments within the 43 local government areas located in the Greater Sydney, Illawarra-Shoalhaven, Lower Hunter and Central Coast regions.

The main feature of this release is:

•  Housing and Productivity Contributions fee will be applied, to Modification and Review of Determination development application types, where applicable.

Payment adjustment service. 

Note: This functionality is available to Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure users only. 

The main features of this release include:

• Enhancement for the Department to adjust the amount payable for Housing and Productivity Contributions.
• The Department will have the ability to apply credits from works in-kind and planning agreements to offset contribution obligations.

Application Programming Interface (API) 

Enhancements have been made to the following existing APIs: Online DA Service APIs, Online Post-Consent Certificate Service APIs and Common APIs. 

These enhancements include:

• A new attribute called 'determination outcome' has been added to the Online DA Service API v2 (Update DA) and Online Post-Consent Certificate Service API v1 (Update PCC) to indicate the outcome of the application's determination. This enhancement was requested by Cadastre NSW team to meet a specific requirement.
• A new attribute called 'determination Outcome' has been added to the Online Post-Consent Certificate Service API v1 (Update PCC) to indicate the outcome of the application's determination. Note: This only applies to the following application types: Subdivision Certificate, Subdivision Works Certificate, Construction Certificate and Occupation Certificate. This enhancement was requested by the CADNSW team to meet a specific requirement.
• The Online DA Service API v2 and Online State DA service APIs have been modified to include the Accept Return API, which initiates a Housing and Productivity Contribution case for review application types. Note: this feature is only activated when the original Development Application (DA) is refused.
• Occasionally, the NSW Planning Portal fails to retrieve a document from an external organisation within the standard 30-second time limit. This problem leads to a blank document being uploaded. To address this, the time-out value has been increased from 30 to 180 seconds for instances where external organisations share documents with the NSW Planning Portal. 
• NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer API's exception handling includes an appropriate error message to direct API customers to retry the AcceptReturn API operation if the ePlanning Spatial Viewer APIs are down during the lodgement. Certifiers using the CDC APIs should consider adopting this enhancement when relevant.

For more information, please go to: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/API