Employment zones reforms - public exhibition has now ended
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment has completed a public exhibition of reforms to state-wide employment zones and invited members of the public to provide feedback on the department’s Planning Portal for 6 weeks from 31 May 2022 to 12 July 2022.
The reforms are aimed at simplifying zonings and providing new business and industrial opportunities in response to COVID.
If you own or manage land that will be affected, we encourage you to review the proposed changes.
The changes do not affect existing approved land uses and activities.
The reforms will result in changes in zone name, objectives and development opportunities (land uses) in future business and industrial zones. There are no changes to building height, floor space ratio or lot size controls.
The new zones will replace the existing business and industrial zones in Gloucester LEP 2010, Great Lakes LEP 2014 and Greater Taree LEP 2010. In the Document Library, we have provided a summary of how the proposed zone objectives and land uses compare with existing zone objectives and land uses in each LEP.
Mapping of the proposed employment zones is provided on the Department of Planning website.
Changes to Business and Industrial Zones
This is the implementation stage of a reform that replaces Business and Industrial zones with Employment zones within individual local environmental plans across NSW. Implementation follows the introduction the Employment zones within the Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Order 2006 in December 2021.
The department has worked closely with each council to ensure LEPs are amended, consistent with the intent of the reform, while also ensuring the land-use planning outcomes are locally appropriate. After the exhibition the department will be working with councils to finalise implementation ahead of the new zones coming into force on 1 December 2022.
To view the detail of the project please visit the department’s Planning Portal and Employment Zones Reform webpage for general information on the reform process.
If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Planning and Environment on 1300 420 596 or by email at employment.zones@planning.nsw.gov.au.