Australia, July 7 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 6:

1. COMMISSIONER: These Class 1 proceedings arise as a result of the deemed refusal, by Clarence Valley Council, of Development Application DA2023/0241. This application seeks consent for a 216 dwelling manufactured home estate with ancillary communal building and facilities, car parking, tree removal and civil works at 110 and 120 Carrs Drive, Yamba, Lot 32 in DP 1280863 and Lot 2 in DP 733507.

2. These proceedings have been brought to the Court pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act).

3. The Court arranged a conciliation conference under s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) between the parties, which was held on 2 June 2025.

4. At the conciliation conference, the parties reached agreement as to acceptable terms of a decision in the proceedings. This decision involved the Court upholding the appeal and granting development consent to the development application subject to conditions. As the application is declared to be a regionally significant development pursuant to s 4.5(b) of the EPA Act, the Council is subject to the control and direction of the Northern Regional Planning Panel.

5. With leave of the Court, the development application was amended twice in March and December 2024. Further, in this conciliation conference, pursuant to s 38 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021, the Council agreed to the applicant further amending the development application a third time to resolve the Council's contentions. Subsequently, the application that is now before the Court (the proposed development) seeks consent for:

1) A 146 dwelling manufactured home estate;

2) A communal building, including lounge, cinema, craft room, games room, gym and multi-purpose spaces;

3) 41 visitor parking spaces and vehicle wash down bays

4) Communal facilities including a swimming pool, bowling green and 8 RV storage spaces;

5) Tree removal; and

6) Earthworks and civil works.

6. Under s 34(3) of the LEC Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' decision if that decision is one that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions. The parties' decision involves the Court exercising the function under. s 4.16 of the EPA Act to grant consent to the development application, however there are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised. The parties have identified and explained how the relevant prerequisites have been satisfied, and from this I note the following points.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1973936325ad1f5c58ac93d8)

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