State Facilitated Development

The key features of SFD include:

• Two stage process for development applications for SFD consisting of the declaration stage (by the Planning Minister) and the assessment stage (by the Chief Executive).
• Local Government endorsement for applications to be made through the SFD assessment pathway is required.
• Tailored criteria which the Planning Minister must consider in deciding to declare a development application for SFD.
• An SFD declaration may be amended or repealed and a development application made to the Chief Executive may be amended.

• Stage 1A: Pre-Application;
• Stage 1B: The Planning Minister’s declaration;
• Stage 2: The assessment of the application for SFD by the Chief Executive;
• Changes and extensions to SFD approvals; and
• Amending and revoking SFD declarations.

Refer to the State Facilitated Development Applicant Supporting Information ( 4.3 MB) for further details.

The Planning Regulation sets out criteria that development must be consistent with to be eligible for SFD declaration. The criteria from the Planning Regulation are reproduced below:

• (1) For section 106D(2)(b) of the Act, the following criteria are prescribed—
  • (a) the development the subject of the relevant application must be for predominantly residential development;
  • (b) the application must comply with either of the following—
    • (i)     the premises the subject of the application are completely within a zone supporting residential development;
    • (ii)    the premises the subject of the application are not within an environmental zone or a limited development zone and the Minister is satisfied the premises are or can be readily serviced by infrastructure for the development.
• (2) In this section—
  environmental zone means—
  • (a) any of the following zones stated in schedule 2—
    • (i)     environmental management and conservation zone;
    • (ii)    conservation zone;
    • (iii)   environmental management zone; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).
    
    limited development zone means—
  • (a) the limited development zone stated in schedule 2; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).
    
    zone supporting residential development means
  • (a) any of the following zones stated in schedule 2—
    • (i)     general residential zone, low density residential zone, low-medium density residential zone, medium density residential zone, high density residential zone or character residential zone;
    • (ii)    centre zone, neighbourhood centre zone, local centre zone, district centre zone, major centre zone or principal centre zone;
    • (iii)   mixed use zone;
    • (iv)  specialised centre zone; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).

The below sections provide a brief overview of the key provisions relating to SFD.

Planning Act

• Provisions within the Planning Act allow the Planning Minister to declare a development application for SFD if:
  • the application assists in the delivery of development that is a State priority,
  • the development is for an urban purpose,
  • the application complies with the criteria in s 51A of Planning Regulation,
  • the Planning Minister is satisfied that the Chief Executive should assess the development application.
• When a declaration takes effect, any decision or decision by the decision-maker stops having effect, any appeal against the decision-maker is discontinued and the process for assessing the application restarts.
• The declaration may be amended or revoked.
• The Chief Executive may assess or re-assess all or part of the development application for SFD or request a change to the development application for SFD.

Planning Regulation

The Planning Regulations provides for:

• the criteria for the declaration of an application as SFD
• the materials to be made publicly available for inspection or purchase by the Chief Executive
• the effect of particular notices (such as the proposed declaration notice) on assessment processes under the standard development approval pathway

DA Rules

The DA Rules provide for:

• A process for assessing and deciding a development application for SFD including tailored public notification requirements, no referrals or appeal processes.
• Reduced timeframes for assessing development applications for SFD (for example, the decision period for the Chief Executive is 30 business days).
• Public notification requirements, with new signage specific to development applications for SFD, to distinguish development applications for SFD from a standard development application, to ensure appropriate community awareness including submitters not having appeal rights.