From: Environment and Planning - Community involvement and appeal rights limited by Part 3A of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979, Ian Ratcliff for EDO (undated).

Link: Technocratic descision-making and the loss of community participation rights - Part 3A of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979, Ian Ratclif et al for EDO, February 2007.

The Threat of Part 3A, Environmental Planning and Assessment Act

In late 2005, the state government amended the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (1979) with the addition of Part 3A.

The Environmental Defender's Office NSW has published an undated paper which states:

"In effect, Part 3A of the Act dramatically reduces the involvement of the community in the original decision-making process and seeks to reduce any risk of concerned individuals or groups delaying or preventing significant development by limiting the grounds on which, or the circumstances in which, they can seek merits or judicial review. Instead, the Minister for Planning and the Director General, Department of Planning (DoP), maintain the power to make all key decisions regarding significant development, with advice from ‘expert panels’, limited input from other key agencies and little opportunity for effective criticism where the bureaucracy ‘gets itwrong’.”

STEP view this request as a tacit admission that the local community and Ku-ring-gai Council have rejected the proposal and thus these voices need to be sidelined.

On 14 June 2007, Frank Sartor registered the proposal as significant and pursuant to Schedule 1 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005 and "is thus declared as to be a project to which Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 applies". 

The Department of Planning now lists the UTS Ku-ring-gai Campus Development on their Register of Major Projects.

Dealing with Part 3A