Australia, April 12 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on March 12:

1. COMMISSIONER: These Class 1 proceedings arise as a result of the deemed refusal, by Liverpool Council (the respondent), of development application DA-1099/2022 which seeks consent for the demolition of existing structures and construction of a mixed-use development at 164 and 170 Croatia Avenue, Edmonson Park (the site).

2. The application has been the subject of several amendments, for which leave was granted by the Court. The most recent amendment resulted in the development that is now before the Court comprising 669 apartments (including 81 affordable housing apartments), retail space, basement parking for 1030 vehicles, landscaping and associated structures, over three stages.

3. These proceedings were brought to the Court pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act), and were listed for a hearing on 13 February 2025. At the commencement of this hearing, the parties indicated to the Court that they had resolved the issues in contention, and requested the matter be listed for a further conciliation conference under s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) between the parties, which was held on the same day.

4. At the conciliation conference, the parties reached agreement as to acceptable terms of a decision in the proceedings, noting that the respondent is subject to the control and direction of the Sydney Western Regional Planning Panel for this matter, pursuant to s 8.15(4) of the EPA Act. The terms of the decision involved the Court upholding the appeal and granting development consent to the development application subject to conditions.

5. 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. There are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised, which the parties identified and explained, and from this I note the following points.

6. The development application was made with the written consent of the owner of the land, which is legally described as Lots 25 and 26 DP 228850.

7. The application was adequately notified in accordance with Liverpool Council's Community Engagement Strategy and Community Participation Plan 2022 from 23 January to 20 February 2023, during which time one submission was received. The amended application was further renotified, and the further amended application again renotified to the entity that made the submission in the original notification period. In response to renotification, one submission was received in two tranches. Based on the amended application, the parties submit, and I accept, that the development as amended adequately addresses the concerns raised in these submissions.

8. The site is subject to a concept plan, which was approved in September 2022 under DA-33/2021 and modified on 6 February 2024 (the concept development consent), and remains in force. The site is further subject to a consent for subdivision, approved in August 2023 under DA-458/2022. From the parties' submission and the information within the Statement of Environmental Effects by The Bathla Group dated July 2024, I accept that, pursuant to s 4.24 of the EPA Act, the proposed development is consistent with, and satisfies the relevant conditions of, the concept development consent.

*Rest of the document and Footnotes can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1958234490a2e87c0f3999a5)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.