Australia, June 9 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 9:

1. COMMISSIONER: This is an appeal pursuant to the provisions of s 8.7(1) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) against the deemed refusal by Central Coast Council of Development Application No DA/30/2024 for the demolition of an existing building and construction of a new industrial building for the purposes of a storage premises, ancillary earthworks, servicing, car parking, tree removal and landscape treatment at Lot 13 DP 245530 commonly known as 13 Tathra Street, West Gosford.

2. The Court was required to arrange a conciliation conference between the parties, pursuant to s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act). The conciliation conference which I presided over was held on 10 February, 10 March and 24 March 2025.

Outcome

3. At the conciliation, the parties reached agreement as to the terms of a decision in the proceedings that would be acceptable to the parties. 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 one that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions.

4. The decision agreed upon is for the grant of development consent subject to conditions of consent pursuant to s 4.16(1) of the EPA Act. The signed agreement is supported by a Jurisdictional Statement that sets out the matters that the Court must consider prior to the grant of development consent. I have considered the contents of the Statement together with the documents referred to therein, the Amended Class 1 Application and its attachments, the reports filed in the proceedings, and the documents that are referred to in condition 1.1 of Annexure A. Based on those documents, I have considered the matters required to be considered pursuant to s 4.15(1) of the EPA Act.

5. The Council as the consent authority, consented to the amendment of the application pursuant to s 38(1) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (EPA Reg). The plans and documents comprising the amended application were submitted to the Court on 28 March 2025 and are listed under condition 1.1 of the conditions of consent at Annexure A.

Jurisdictional matters

6. As the presiding Commissioner I am satisfied that the decision to grant development consent to the amended application subject to conditions of consent, is a decision that the Court can make in the proper exercise of its functions (this being the test applied by s 34(3) of the LEC Act). I formed this state of satisfaction as each of the jurisdictional preconditions identified by the parties is met for the following reasons:

Central Coast Local Environmental Plan 2022

7. The development works are for the purposes of an industrial development which is a permissible use in E4 General Industrial zone in which the site is located pursuant to Central Coast Local Environmental Plan 2022 (CCLEP).

8. The consistency of the proposal with the objectives of the E4 General Industrial zone has been considered as required by cl 2.3 of CCLEP and the proposal has been assessed as being consistent with those objectives including specifically:

* To provide a range of industrial, warehouse, logistics and related land uses.

* To ensure the efficient and viable use of land for industrial uses.

* To minimise any adverse effect of industry on other land uses.

* To encourage employment opportunities.

* To enable limited non-industrial land uses that provide facilities and services to meet the needs of businesses and workers.

* To ensure that retail, commercial or service land uses in industrial areas are of an ancillary nature.

* To support and protect industrial land for industrial uses.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/196a3339dbb87894dac55f2b)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.