Ask any planner or developer in New South Wales and they’ll likely have a laundry list of issues with the state’s planning system. 

A seemingly clear-cut Land and Environment Court case over a Canterbury-Bankstown highrise apartment development has put the spotlight on some of these issues, including 40-day assessment times and “substantially the same” modifications. 

“It started out as a reasonably straightforward job,” Realize Architecture’s Terry Savill, whose firm designed the project, says.