NSW development approval pathways: a practical map

Legislation, environmental planning instruments and the facts of the proposal determine its approval pathway. Correct classification establishes whether consent is needed, who assesses and determines the proposal, what public participation occurs, which other agencies are involved and what review rights may follow.

This map is a starting point. Classification should be repeated if the land, use, scale or project description changes.

1. Exempt and complying development depend on exact standards

The first question is whether an environmental planning instrument makes the proposal exempt development or permits a complying development certificate. Both are rules-based pathways with detailed development standards and exclusions. A proposal outside a required standard is not converted into complying development by general merit.

Start with the relevant local environmental plan and the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008. Check land-based exclusions, heritage, hazards, mapped constraints and every numerical standard against current instruments.

That may change for some standards. The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Act 2025 (NSW) (the 2025 amending Act) provides for a new section 4.31A. It would let the council, or another person prescribed by the regulations, issue a “variation certificate” that varies a complying development standard, but only where an environmental planning instrument says that standard may be varied. The item that inserts section 4.31A (Schedule 1, item 76) had not commenced at 30 September 2026. Until it commences and an instrument identifies standards that can be varied, a proposal that misses a standard remains outside the complying pathway.

2. Consent-based classification fixes the process and decision-maker

Most consent-based proposals proceed under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EP&A Act).

Local development can have a State-appointed decision-maker

The consent authority may be a council, a local planning panel, a Sydney district or regional planning panel, or another body identified by the Act and instruments. “Local” describes the statutory pathway, not necessarily the decision-maker.

A Sydney district or regional planning panel is the consent authority for regionally significant development under section 4.5(b). Since 16 January 2026, where a local planning panel has been constituted for the area, most of those development applications are determined on the regional panel’s behalf at council level: section 275(3A)–(3C) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021. In such an area the decision is made by the local planning panel or a delegated council officer, not by the councillors: section 4.8(2). The 2025 amending Act would remove section 4.5(b) altogether, but the item that does so (Schedule 1, item 48) had not commenced at 30 September 2026.

Assessment occurs under section 4.15. Since 15 December 2025, section 4.15(1)(b) directs attention to the significant likely impacts of the development. Under sections 4.15(1A) and (1B), the regulations may declare factors that are, or are not, relevant to the impacts, site suitability and public interest questions, and the consent authority must not consider a factor declared not relevant.

A pending-application saving may preserve the former assessment text. Schedule 6, section 34(2) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 provides that a relevant application lodged, but not finally determined, before the amendments commenced “must be determined as if the items had not commenced”. A relevant application includes a development application and an application to modify a consent: section 34(6). The saving “ceases to have effect 12 months after” the amendments commenced on 15 December 2025: section 34(3). After that, an application lodged before 15 December 2025 and still undetermined will generally be assessed under the current text. Lodgement, final determination and transition dates therefore select the governing text.

Designated development adds assessment and appeal consequences

Development identified as designated development attracts additional environmental assessment, exhibition and objector appeal consequences. It is development declared to be designated development by an environmental planning instrument or the regulations (section 4.10), and the main classification rules are in Schedule 3 to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021. It remains Part 4 development unless another classification applies; State significant development is never designated development (section 4.10(2)).

Integrated development preserves the later approval

Integrated development is development, other than State significant or complying development, that needs development consent and one or more approvals under another Act listed in section 4.46. For an application lodged on or after 1 July 2026, the consent authority obtains the general terms of those approvals from the NSW Development Coordination Authority. That Authority decides, as if it were the approval body, whether each approval will be granted and on what general terms: section 4.47 and section 4.47A. The consent must be consistent with those general terms. The approval body must then grant an application for the approval made within three years, on conditions not inconsistent with the consent: section 4.50. The development consent does not itself replace the later licence or approval.

The Development Coordination Authority is the Planning Secretary: section 2.11E. It coordinates many local development referrals, but it does not become the consent authority, and the later approval is still granted by the approval body. An application lodged, but not finally determined, before 1 July 2026 is determined as if the amendments to sections 4.47 to 4.51 had not commenced: Schedule 6, section 46 of the Regulation. See NSW Development Coordination Authority: local referrals from 1 July 2026.

Targeted assessment requires an operative declaration

Amendments commencing on 21 March 2026 inserted section 4.15(1C), section 4.15(1D) and Division 4.3A. For targeted assessment development, the consent authority considers only the planning instruments, plans, agreements and regulations in section 4.15(1)(a) and the submissions in section 4.15(1)(d). It must not consider the significant likely impacts, the suitability of the site or the public interest.

Those provisions operate only for development declared, in a State environmental planning policy, to be targeted assessment development. Before such a policy is made, the proposal must be publicised and open for written submissions for at least 28 days: section 4.20A. No declaration had been made at 30 September 2026. The Department exhibited a low-rise housing and targeted assessment discussion paper from 14 May to 24 June 2026, and it remained under consideration. Until a declaration applies, the enabling legislation does not change an application’s classification.

3. State significant development requires a declaration

Development is State significant development (SSD) only if declared under section 4.36, principally through the State Environmental Planning Policy (Planning Systems) 2021 (the Planning Systems SEPP) or a Ministerial order.

Thresholds, estimated development cost, location and project type must be applied to the current proposal. The Minister or Independent Planning Commission is the consent authority according to section 4.5 and the allocation rules in the Planning Systems SEPP. The Housing Delivery Authority, a statutory body since 15 December 2025, advises the Minister on request about housing supply and about declaring particular housing proposals to be SSD: section 2.11C. Its advice does not grant development consent.

See State significant development in NSW for the end-to-end process.

4. State significant infrastructure and Part 5 activities need separate classification

State significant infrastructure (SSI) is development declared under section 5.12 and assessed under Division 5.2. Other activities carried out by or on behalf of a public authority, or that need a public authority’s approval, may be assessed under Part 5 without a development consent, subject to the Act and applicable instruments: section 5.1.

For a Part 5 activity, section 5.5(1) requires the determining authority to “examine and take into account matters affecting or likely to affect the environment by reason of that activity”. The former section 5.5(1), as in force on 20 March 2026, included the words “to the fullest extent possible all”; those words were removed on 21 March 2026. The new section 5.5(2) says that, for subsection (1), the authority “may take into account the matters … in a manner that is proportionate to the nature and risk of the activity”.

That proportionality provision does not replace the separate environmental impact statement (EIS) gateway. Under section 5.7(1), an authority must not carry out or approve an activity “that is likely to significantly affect the environment”, or an activity prescribed by the regulations, unless it has obtained or been furnished with, and examined and considered, an EIS and complied with the other statutory steps.

The fact that government is involved does not by itself select Part 5 or SSI. Identify the proponent, statutory authorisation, land-use controls and any declaration.

5. Separate referrals and approvals may remain

Pathway classification does not complete the approvals map. A project may separately engage:

• biodiversity assessment and offset requirements;
• water, roads, heritage, pollution, mining or resource approvals;
• landowner, easement and utility requirements;
• Commonwealth environmental approval; and
• approvals for connected infrastructure outside the development application boundary.

For biodiversity, see Biodiversity offsets scheme triggers. See also our project approvals and licensing practice.

6. Commonwealth approval is a separate question

The Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) operates alongside NSW approval pathways. A proponent must consider whether the action is likely to have a significant impact on a protected matter. A NSW consent or assessment does not remove that question.

The National Environmental Protection Agency (the National EPA) was established on 1 July 2026 under the National Environmental Protection Agency Act 2025 (Cth). It administers EPBC Act referrals, assessments and approvals on the Minister’s behalf. The Minister retains the statutory section 75 controlled-action decision unless a valid delegation applies; the current register of EPBC delegations must be checked. The EPBC Act amendments in Schedule 1, Parts 1 and 2 of the Environment Protection Reform Act 2025 (Cth) that have not yet commenced will commence on days fixed by proclamation, and no later than 1 December 2026. See Commonwealth environmental referrals: significant impact, timing and the 2026 transition.