Australia, Sept. 8 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on Aug. 7:

1. COMMISSIONER: This is an appeal against the Development Control Order (DCO) (Ex 1 Respondent's Bundle of Documents, pp10-11) under Div 9.3, Orders 3 and 10, of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EPA Act) dated 21 August 2024 (Ref: ON2004/0124; File no. 143991) issued by Blacktown City Council (Council) to the Applicant in relation to the premises on Lot 51 in Deposited Plan 2161 and known as 40 Sarsfield Street Blacktown 2148 (Premises - Site).

2. The Premises are owned by the Applicant (Ex 6), and he has given authority to his father, Dr Luping Zeng, to act as his agent for the purposes of the present proceedings (Ex A).

3. Although Dr Zeng has been appointed agent for the Applicant, at the request of the Applicant, and with the Respondent's consent, I agreed to both the Applicant and Dr Zeng being able to address the Court on the basis that the Applicant's English is superior to Dr Zeng's English. From time to time throughout the hearing I permitted the Applicant and Dr Zeng to speak together at the Bar Table prior to addressing the Court or examining/cross-examining a witness.

4. These proceedings fall within Class 1 of the Court's jurisdiction pursuant to s. 17(d) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (NSW) (LEC Act).

5. On 25 September 2024 Justice Robson granted the Applicant a stay of the DCO pending determination of these Class 1 proceedings.

6. The DCO requires the Applicant to (Ex 1 p 10-13):

"(1) Restore the premises into the condition in which it was before the unauthorised building works occurred by doing the following:

a. Remove the wall including one of the built-in wardrobes between the garage and the store room on ground floor so that the storeroom is no longer being used as a bedroom which is marked in red at the attached floor plan 'Attachment A'.

b. Remove the wall dividing the store room and workshop marked in red at the attached floor plan 'Attachment A'.

c. Restore the garage to a class 10A structure under the National Construction Code 2022 to be used for storage purposes only."

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1982a5c4908cd705af592945)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.