*Please note that the links to the content in this Part will direct you to Westlaw AU.

To purchase an article, please email: [email protected] or contact us on 1300 304 195 (Australian customers) or +61 2 8587 7980 (international customers) during business hours (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm AEST).

The latest issue of the Local Government Law Journal (Volume 24 Part 2) contains the following material:

Articles

Preserving Character Assessment in the Land-Use Planning Toolkit – Willem van Wyk

Character represents an aspirational confluence of local scale strategic visioning and statutory regulation. The concept lives in the collective imagination as the genius loci of place, yet in practice is at risk of being reduced to legalistic definitions by recent decisions of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court. This has coincided with character reform being taken off the State Government agenda resulting in an uncertain future for character assessment. The ability for councils to protect distinctive elements of existing character or to project an enforceable vision of desired future character is at risk. This article will argue for character to once more form a cornerstone of development assessment in New South Wales. The concept remains useful for its accessibility and holistic nature. It seems much of the hesitation comes down to an unsubstantiated conflation of the qualitative with the subjective.

Developments in Planning Law – Glen McLeod, Chelsea White and Emiko Watanabe

The Western Australian planning and land tenure system has seen several key changes over 2021 and 2022, by way of introducing new legislation, amending existing legislation or releasing new or updated State Planning Policies and guidelines. Specific topics discussed in this article relate to environmental conservation, medium density housing design, heritage protection and developer contributions to the cost of new infrastructure demand generated by subdivisions. While the topics are varied, all the changes are primarily aimed at providing greater clarity to government, developers and landowners in order to achieve development and environmental conservation aims. The article provides an overview of the changes and comments on the intended outcomes.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING & LAW GUIDE CASES

DIGEST OF CASES

For the PDF version of the table of contents, click here: New Westlaw Australia – LGLJ Vol 24 No 2 Contents.

Click here to access this Part on New Westlaw AU

For general queries, please contact: [email protected].