Legal Comment by Mark Illidge of Hinterland Lawyers

April 2006

Recent amendments to the Integrated Planning Act now allow for lapsing times for approvals to be rolled forward so that they start again when the subsequent "related approvals" are granted.

Previously, a developer obtained several approvals dealing with the different stages and types of development in a particular project.  This often resulted in one of the approvals lapsing before other approvals and potentially terminated the project.

The salient features of the amendments are:

• they only apply to Material Change of Use (MCU) and reconfiguring a lot (ROL) approvals;
  lapsing of the approvals is rolled forward to the day on which the latest "related approval" takes effect. The timeframe for lapsing can therefore be rolled forward more than once through a chain of related approvals;
  the definition of "related approval" differs for MCU approvals and ROL approvals;
  however, in each case, the related approval must be applied for within two years of either the day of the original approval or the latest related approval. It must be applied for within the two year period but it may be approved and take effect outside this period;
  only approvals given by a local government or a private certifier in the case of an MCU approvals and a local government in the case of an ROL approvals can be related approvals. Approvals given by other assessment managers are not related approvals;
  the provisions apply to all approvals (apart from approvals still on foot under the transitional provisions of the Integrated Planning Act) whether granted before after the commencement of these amendments.

These changes should allow a more realistic and practical approach to the undertaking of development within relevant timeframes in order to avoid lapsing of approvals.

To find out more about the authors you can read About Us

For more information or to make an appointment please Contact Us