By Angela Dorizas

Western Sydney has been deprived $1.4 billion worth of investment because the NSW Government has refused to give Part 3A status to a number of major projects, a leading industry group has claimed.

Through a freedom of information request the Urban Taskforce, representing developers, obtained internal documents showing that the Department of Planning refused to consider nine major projects since July last year.

Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act empowered the Department of Planning to consider and approve larger projects, circumventing the local government development assessment process.

The Taskforce’s chief executive officer, Aaron Gadiel, said under the new system 14 projects with a total value of $1.8 billion have been refused Part 3A status. Nine were located in Western Sydney and would have amounted to a $1.4 billion investment in the region, he added.

Mr Gadiel said political controversy surrounding the Part 3A provisions had made the government “more reluctant” to bypass councils and deliver its own judgement on major projects.

“This new approach is hitting investment in Western Sydney, more so than any other region in NSW,” Mr Gadiel said.

“It seems the government prematurely knocked each of these Western Sydney projects back, without a proper merit assessment.”

Mr Gadiel said seven projects were valued at more than $100 million and, under planning legislation, should have been accepted as Part 3A proposals and publicly exhibited.

“These decisions were taken behind closed doors – with no information about these refusals being made public,” he said.

A spokesman for the Minister for Planning Tony Kelly said there had been some misunderstanding about application of the $100 million threshold criteria.

“Under the Major Development State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP), the NSW Government is the consent authority for residential, retail or commercial projects worth more than $100 million,” he told Government News.

“If there weren’t restrictions, the NSW Government would have no choice but to assess highly inappropriate projects in unsuitable locations or sensitive environmental lands just because they were worth more than $100 million.”

He said the Department did provide information as to why projects were refus...
Next Page