The most significant change introduced through legislation since May 2025 is the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025 passed by NSW Parliament on November 11, 2025, and assented to on November 24, 2025. It acts as a major overhaul of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, focusing on accelerating housing, simplifying approvals, and shifting to risk-based, “proportionate” assessments and summarised as:

• Legislative Changes: Passed as the Environmental Planning and Assessment
• Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Act 2025 (No 71).
• Proportionate Assessments: Replaces the requirement to consider environmental impacts “to the fullest extent possible” with a requirement “proportionate to the nature and risk of the activity”.
• Housing Delivery Authority (HDA): Formally enshrined in legislation to fast-track state significant residential development.
• Development Coordination Authority (DCA): Created as a “single front door” for government agency advice on major projects.
• Targeted Assessment Pathway: A new, streamlined assessment pathway for projects already subject to strategic planning.
• “Zombie” DA Management: Introduced measures to facilitate the cleanup of long dormant “zombie”) development applications.
• Amended Objects of the Act: Added new requirements for planning to consider climate change resilience, housing supply, and proportionate assessment.
• Consolidated Community Participation: Aims to replace over 100 separate consultation plans with a single, state-wide Community Participation Plan.
  
  Concerns have been raised by stakeholders such as the Environmental Defenders Office regarding potential reductions in environmental protection and community participation resulting from the planning reforms.
  
  The passing of the Planning System Reforms Act 2025 in April this year, marks the most significant overhaul of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 in a generation, streamlining the foundational legislation of the state’s housing, jobs, infrastructure, and energy delivery to the detriment of local communities across NSW.
  
  The State Government announced that the reforms are designed to simplify the planning process making for more unaccountable decision-making. The government reforms can only be described as an autocratic top down approach that has granted an avenue for the planning minister and a few bureaucrats unchecked powers to control planning and development which will primarily benefit the NSW property and development industry.
  
  The NSW Government reforms include:

Objects of the EP&A Act

The objects of the Act have been updated to reflect the State Government’s ‘one size fits all’ planning priorities. Changes to encourage an abundance of housing supply, promote unproportionate assessment in decision-making, and to embed climate change resilience for the first time. The amendments were supported by the Opposition.

Sydney’s High Rise Plan

In April FOKE responded to the Government’s SYDNEY PLAN, a 20-year strategy for housing, jobs, infrastructure and growth. There remains major concern that the Plan’s emphasis on development speed and housing delivery compromises comprehensive strategic planning and major infrastructure to support an increasing population.


FOKE’s concerns being:

• The Plan’s approach to the statewide ‘one size fits all’ policy overrides local variation in character, heritage, infrastructure needs and environmental values of different places.
• Planning should not be reduced to facilitating development. Good planning is not just about building more but shaping cities and suburbs that are liveable, distinct and resilient.
• Planning should recognise heritage as an asset, not an obstacle. Historic homes, streetscapes are part of the fabric of our cities, and irreplaceable once lost.
• Affordable housing is not a short-term product to be produced by market churn. Permanent social and affordable housing available secured over the long term is needed.
• Reliance on continual changes to the plan, increased flexibility, and fast tracking for development. Speed should not come at the expense of undermining certainty for councils and communities, transparency or proper community consultation.
• Vague reference only to infrastructure. Without an adequate plan for investment for supporting infrastructure such as schools, parks and community service, growth will be unsustainable.
• Failure to set strong standards for construction standards to assure quality, liveability and good design.
• Inadequate protection of biodiversity, bushland and vulnerable ecological communities. Failure to protect our environment.
• Proposed increased Ministerial Discretion in planning increases risks of lack of accountability, risk of corruption and uncontrolled overdevelopment

Housing Delivery Authority

The role of the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) has been legislated to help boost and fast track housing supply across the state.

The HDA acts as a specialist panel advising the Minister for Planning on major residential projects (over ($60) million in Sydney, ($30) million in regional areas), accelerating them to an SSD pathway.

Since 7 February 2025 – 31 March 2026 the HDA has declared 364 proposals as SSDs out of a proposed 775 applications received for a for a total of 126,494 new high density residential dwellings.

On average the HDA members spend 2-3 minutes per SSD application (following briefings from DPHI staff) in deciding whether to declare a development proposal as an SSD or not or to defer the application. We understand that 176 of these 364 projects have been issued with a Secretary Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) and only 35 development applications have been received by the DPHI since February 2025. The NSW Government has terminated 7 fast tracked residential development projects from the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) pathway for failing to comply with the mandatory 9-month deadline to formally lodge their development application (DA). On the 29 April the DPHI issued its Summary of Housing Delivery Authority 12 Month Review to overview the HDA’s operations with a view to ensuring its alignment with other major reforms across the planning system and continuous improvement.

At the 17 February 2026 HDA meeting four (4) proposals from Ku-ring-gai were declared SSD for fast tracked development for a total of 1,646 new dwellings being development proposals for 2,2A,4,6,10,12,14, 14A and 18 Orinoco Street Pymble, 386 dwellings; 12-20 Wolseley Road Lindfield, 121 dwellings (including 5% affordable); 802-808 Pacific Highway, 786- 788 Pacific highway and 784 Pacific Highway Gordon (Charter Hall P/L) storeys and 809 dwellings; and 1A and 1-7 Carlotta Street Gordon (Uniting church NSW) 300 dwellings (including 10% affordable).

Development Coordination Authority

In establishing the Development Coordination Authority (DCA) the government plans to coordinate state agency concurrences and referrals and advice on development applications and planning proposals.

The DCA will issue general terms of approval for integrated development and provide statutory and advisory inputs on development applications and rezonings.

The DCA is defined as the Planning Secretary, and its staff will be officers of the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure. This centralisation means independent input that specialised agencies e.g. (Heritage Council, Rural Fire Service) have historically provided, is replaced with advice from within the planning department itself. The reforms have been described as contradicting fundamental ICAC principles of accountability, transparency and oversight.

A Single Community Participation Plan

The underlying legislation, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025, passed both houses of Parliament on November 11, 2025, and received assent on November 24, 2025, establishing the framework for this new state-wide approach of a single Community Participation Plan.

The proposed single Community Participation Plan has been placed on public exhibition for comment until 3 June (having been voted upon with the support of both political parties) and will apply across all planning authorities and functions across the state, ‘harmonising exhibition and consultation requirements, providing certainty for all interactions with the planning system.’

The proposed changes which are already in place, will make it harder for council and community members to engage in the public processes that impact their local environment and places they love, live and work.

Impacted communities have rights to be genuinely consulted which are set out in the United Nations Rio Declaration for Environment and Development, to which Australia is a signatory. Australia is also a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines the public’s right to take part in the conduct of public affairs.

Following the public exhibition period which ends on 3 June 2026, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) will review all submissions and may revise the draft. Once finalised, the Minister will “make” the plan by approving its publication on the NSW planning website and the NSW legislation website.

FOKE will be making a submission before 3 June 2026 and encouraging FOKE members and residents to do the same. FOKE is extremely concerned at the intended removal of community review to any development, whether large or a neighbouring property. The lack of community oversight will raise the likelihood of increased corruption within planning processes.

Complying development

The complying development pathway has been expanded, allowing certain variations to development standards through a deemed approval process. Submissions on the Complying Development Code Variation will end in June 2026.

Key Aspects of Expanded Complying Development (2026)

• Minor Variations Allowed: The new planning reforms allow minor variations (e.g., small setbacks, landscaping deviations) to be approved by councils, avoiding a full DA.
• Deemed Approval Deadline: If a council does not decide on a variation within 10days (or 20 days if combined with a Complying Development Certificate), the variation is deemed approved.
• Housing Pattern Book Code: A new, faster pathway is introduced specifically for homes built using pre-approved designs, with approvals possible in just 10 days.
• Broader Scope: The expansion aims to cover more types of development to meet housing demand, shifting more projects away from the complex DA process.
• Streamlined Modifications: It is now easier to make minor changes to existing applications without incurring long approval wait times.

These reforms, part of the NSW Planning System Reform Bill 2025, aim to reduce red tape, improve certainty for developers, and accelerate home construction across the state. However this again removes community consultation and council oversight.

Targeted assessment pathway

A new targeted assessment pathway allows certain projects to bypass a full merit assessment where relevant issues and impacts have already been addressed upfront.

Key Changes to the Targeted Assessment Pathway

• Faster Approvals: Designed to bridge the gap between Complying Development Certificates (CDC) and full Development Applications (DA), aiming for significantly faster assessment.
• Trigger Mechanism: The pathway is only available for development declared in a State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).
• Reduced Scope: Enables bypassing a full merit assessment where key impacts are addressed upfront.
• Public Consultation: A mandatory minimum 28-day public exhibition period is required for the SEPP that enables this pathway.
• Excluded Projects: Designated developments are ineligible, focusing the tool on lower-risk, predictable projects.

Development assessment

Other development pathways and processes have been reformed to promote a more streamlined and outcomes-focused approach to assessment and the timely construction of development.

Key 2026 Changes to NSW Development Assessment

The NSW development assessment process has been overhauled under the Planning System Reforms Act 2025 to speed up housing delivery.

Here is the high-level summary:

• Faster Pathways: New “Targeted Assessment” pathways for low-risk projects (like pattern-book homes) can cut approval times by 50%.
• Automatic Approvals: Minor variations to building standards are now “deemed approved” if a council doesn’t decide within 10–20 days.
• Narrower Focus: Planners now only assess “significant” impacts rather than every minor detail, and minor modifications to existing approvals can be cleared in 14 days.
• Single Entry Point: The new Development Coordination Authority (DCA) acts as a “one-stop shop,” coordinating advice from all state agencies (like Transport or Water) so you don’t have to deal with them individually.
• Local Control: Regional planning panels are being phased out, returning more assessment power to local councils.
• New Priorities: For the first time, the law explicitly prioritises housing supply, climate resilience, and proportionate assessment (matching the level of scrutiny to the size of the project).

Read FOKE’s full Report 2025-2026:

August 2026