Australia, June 12 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 13:

1. COMMISSIONER: This is an appeal pursuant to ss 8.7 and 8.11 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) against the deemed refusal of Development Application No DA-479/2024 (the DA) for the demolition of existing structures and the construction of a two storey centre-based childcare facility for 64 children with basement car parking and 2 at-grade parking spaces at 52 Dennis Street, Lakemba, NSW, 2162 and legally identified as Lot 21 Section 3 DP 4784 (the site).

2. The DA was lodged with the Respondent on 30 May 2024 by Mr Ghazi Al Ali, as the Applicant's agent. These proceedings were commenced by Class 1 Application filed on 12 July 2024. The Respondent filed its Statement of Facts and Contentions (SOFAC) on 5 August 2024.

3. The Court arranged a conciliation conference under s 34 of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) between the parties, which was held on 10 December 2024. I presided over the conciliation conference, which began with an on-site view. Fourteen submissions had been made in response to the notification of the DA. No submitters attended the on-site view.

4. The s 34 conciliation conference was adjourned to 23 December 2024 to allow time for amended plans to be prepared by the Applicant and assessed by the Respondent. The s 34 conciliation conference was further adjourned a number of times to enable the parties to come to an agreement over amended plans for the proposed development.

5. Following a number of adjournments of the s 34 conciliation conference, the parties advised that they had reached an agreement as to the terms of a decision in the proceedings that would be acceptable to the parties. This decision involved the Court upholding the appeal and granting development consent to the amended DA subject to conditions.

6. A signed s 34 agreement with Annexure A was filed with the Court on 7 March 2025, with amended plans (the amended DA) as agreed between the parties, filed with the Court on 18 March 2025. The s 34 agreement is supported by an agreed statement of jurisdictional prerequisites.

7 The parties advise that the amended DA now proposes the demolition of existing structures and construction of a two-storey 60 place centre based child care facility with single level basement car parking, and tree removal, landscaping, stormwater and associated site works at the site.

8. Under s 34(3) of the LEC Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' decision if the parties' decision is a decision that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions. In making the orders to give effect to the agreement between the parties, I was not required to, and have not, made any merit assessment of the issues that were originally in dispute between the parties.

9. The parties' decision involves the Court exercising the function under s 4.16 of the EPA Act to grant consent to the amended DA.

10. There are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised. The parties have identified and explained how the jurisdictional prerequisites of relevance have been satisfied in a written submission accompanying the s 34 agreement, and those requirements have been satisfied as follows below.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/196b216c39c4410f6a678566)

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