A $313-million warehouse development in Sydney’s west has been approved as NSW rolls out new planning measures to speed up industrial, hospital and school assessments.
The super fund-backed property group ISPT will now move ahead on the 18.7ha Elevation at Greystanes project, which included seven warehouses and onsite amenities at 44 Clunies Ross Street, Prospect.
ISPT partnered with Aliro on the development to create the 94,000sq m industrial development near the M4-M7 motorway junction.
The site was purchased by ISPT in three tranches in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and the group made the application in mid-August.
However, future industrial application approvals could be faster thanks to reforms implemented by the NSW government to slash decision times for state-significant projects by at least 21 days through the Rapid Assessment Framework.
Department of Planning deputy secretary Marcus Ray said such projects were an important economic driver and that a faster, easier and more transparent system was part of a raft of reforms.
“To do that, we’re rolling out industry-specific requirements that have been pre-prepared by the department for major project applications to speed up the process by being upfront about what we expect and giving us better quality applications to assess,” Ray said.
“We’re leveraging our digital systems to roll out these changes and improve transparency and the customer’s experience of the planning system.”
The package included new guidelines on cumulative and social impact assessments to involve the community on major projects.
Pre-prepared industry specific requirements, a two-year limit on the expiration of specific requirements and the introduction of a new quality assurance scheme for planners are also in the framework.
