IHAPs Will Provide More Transparency: Urbis

Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels (IHAP) are now mandatory for all councils in Greater Sydney and Wollongong after the Bill passed the NSW Parliament last month.

The NSW Government introduced the Environmental Planning and Assessment and Electoral Legislation Bill, it says, as a safeguard against corruption.

New rules are now in place for certain development applications submitted to Councils in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area and Wollongong local government area. From September, development applications and applications to modify consents, will be determined by:

[Related reading: Councils Stripped Of DA Powers In NSW]According to Urbis, the new legislation will allow for is a clearer and more consistent development assessment process in Wollongong and the Sydney metropolitan area.

In January, Urbis advised clients of the NSW Planning Legislation Changes Ahead including the proposed introduction of IHAPs.

At that stage, IHAPs were not proposed to be mandatory but the Minister could direct them to be made. The final operational model and the provisions for mandatory IHAPs signals a stronger commitment to assessment transparency and procedural certainty.

For the councils that already have IHAPs it will be business as usual but under a new operational model.  For some councils, the new procedures will be more time consuming and may mean that some planning applications that were efficiently determined under delegation will now be determined by the IHAP.