Proposed Regulations on consultation – Draft Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) (Miscellaneous) Amendment Regulations 2025

The State Government is currently seeking comment on its draft Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) (Miscellaneous) (No 2) Amendment Regulations 2025 (Amendment Regulations). The proposed Amendment Regulations are available on the yourSAy website, with consultation open until 22 April 2025.

The Amendment Regulations are proposed largely in response to issues arising from the report of the Expert Panel for the Planning System Implementation Review, as well as other issues raised by the development sector more broadly.

The following represent some of the more significant changes proposed by the Amendment Regulations:

• Vesting of land in local authority under a land division proposal: consequential amendments that propose to limit the discretion of a consenting authority in circumstances where a design standard applies (no such design standards have been released as yet);
  
• Carve-outs from the definition of a tree damaging activity: greater allowance for pruning undertaken by a council, which would fall outside the scope of the definition of a tree damaging activity;
  
• Code assessed development inconsistent with design standard: A new exception is proposed such that ‘deemed-to-satisfy’ development that otherwise must be granted planning consent can be refused if it is inconsistent with a design standard. Performance assessed applications would also be subject to a mandatory condition to comply with any relevant design standard
  
• New requirements for assessment of ‘complex’ development: an additional requirement would be imposed on the relevant authority to determine the complexity of an application at verification (to be assessed against criteria published on the SA planning portal);
  
• Assessment and verification timeframes: the statutory period for undertaking verification is to be counted towards the total assessment period under regulation 53 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017, with implications for the total assessment timeframe if verification exceeds the statutory period;
  
• Hagger amendments (division of proposed allotments): to address the issue created by the decision of Hagger v Development Assessment Commission, it is proposed that an application for ‘development’ can be made to divide an allotment that is not yet created, where it is the subject of an operative development authorisation;
  

• New regulation requiring open space to be developed to the satisfaction of the relevant authority: relevant authorities (not specifically a council or an assessment manager) would have a discretion to impose a requirement that public open space, to be vested in a particular council, be developed in a particular;
  

• Access to documents: a new entitlement for an owner of land to inspect documents, free of charge, relating to any application for a development authorisation, subject to reasonable discretion to refuse for reasons of copyright infringement, security or other instances where disclosure would be unlawful.

Other more administrative changes, such as amendments to definitions, are also proposed. We encourage councils and relevant authorities to read these Amendment Regulations carefully.

For more specific information on any of the material contained in this article please contact Gavin Leydon on +61 8 8210 1225 or gleydon@normans.com.au or Nicholas Munday on +61 8 8217 1381 or nmunday@normans.com.au.