Document availability amendments to the Planning Regulation 2017 soon to commence – Planning (Infrastructure Charges Register and Other Matters) Amendment Regulation 2019

In brief

This article concerns the Planning (Infrastructure Charges Register and Other Matters) Amendment Regulation 2019 (subordinate legislation 2019 no. 196) (Amendment Regulation), which contains amendments to the Planning Regulation 2017 (Planning Regulation) which will commence on 1 January 2020. 

The amendments to the Planning Regulation, commencing on 1 January 2020, include inserted sections and changes to current sections in respect of the following (Part 3 of the Amendment Regulation):

• The documents which a local government must keep available for inspection and purchase, including documents associated with a Local Government Infrastructure Plan (LGIP) or an Infrastructure Charges Notices (ICN).

• The documents which a local government must or may publish on their website.

• The documents which are "prescribed documents" for the purpose of section 264(6) (Public access to documents) of the Planning Act 2016 (see section 9 of the Amendment Regulation).

• The definition of relevant words.

Section 70 of the Planning Regulation requires a local government to keep documents publicly available for inspection and purchase or for inspection only. The documents that must be kept publicly available are set out in schedule 22 of the Planning Regulation. 

The amendments to the Planning Regulation that will commence on 1 January 2020 will require a local government to keep available additional documents relating to ICNs and to a local government's LGIP. 

Documents that must be kept available for inspection and purchase 

LGIP related material

The Amendment Regulation will remove the general requirement for a local government to keep "each document mentioned in the local government's LGIP" available for inspection and purchase, and instead the amended section will refer to specific documents "prepared or used in relation to the making, amendment or review of the local government's LGIP", which include the following:

• each schedule of works model; 

• each review checklist; 

• each appointed reviewer statement; 

• a study or report.

In addition, after the commencement of the Amendment Regulation, these documents must also be published on a local government's website (see section 7 of the Amendment Regulation).

ICNs issued after 1 January 2020

The Amendment Regulation also inserts a requirement in the Planning Regulation that each local government must keep available for inspection and purchase an ICN issued after 1 January 2020 and any amended ICNs, where the original ICN was issued after 1 January 2020 as follows (see section 6(3) of the Amendment Regulation):

1. schedule 22, section (1)(z) – "each infrastructure charges notice given by the local government on or after 1 January 2020, other than an amended infrastructure charges notice"; and

2. schedule 22, section (1)(za) – "each infrastructure charges notice to which paragraph (z) applies that is amended by the local government after 1 January 2020".

In addition, after the commencement of the Amendment Regulation, these documents must also be published on the local government's website.

Infrastructure charges register

A new section, section 3A, will be inserted into schedule 22 of the Planning Regulation upon the commencement of Part 3 of the Amendment Regulation requiring a local government with a LGIP to publish on its website relevant information from the infrastructure charges register, which is currently required by schedule 22, section (1)(y) of the Planning Regulation (see section 8 of the Amendment Regulation). 

Another new section, section 3B, will be inserted into schedule 22 of the Planning Regulation that will require a local government with a LGIP to keep available for inspection and purchase a document that includes the trunk infrastructure information that a local government is required to publish on its website under the new section, section 3A. 

New definitions

The Amendment Regulation will insert the following definitions in the Planning Regulation (see section 10 of the Amendment Regulation):

• "infrastructure charges register"; 

• "infrastructure charges information"; 

• "trunk infrastructure information". 

Importantly, the definition for "infrastructure charges register" includes the relevant information from ICNs issued before 1 January 2020 and additional information in respect of ICNs issued after 1 January 2020. The definition encompasses the definition of "infrastructure charges information". 

The definition for "trunk infrastructure information" includes relevant information about trunk infrastructure provided by a local government, or under an infrastructure agreement, or a condition of a development approval.