(The appointed day was 1 July 1998).
36 Prior to 24 December 1999, the remediation development application was incomplete in that it was not "accompanied by" an EIS which substantially complied with s 77(3)(d) of the unamended Act and the unamended regulations. As this Court determined in the first appeals and Remath no longer disputes, while the remediation development application remained incomplete in that respect it could not provide the foundation for a lawful remediation consent.[6] (According to the Council's argument, while the remediation development application was not "accompanied by" an EIS which substantially complied with the applicable legislation it could not even have been lawfully refused on the merits by either the Council or the Land and Environment Court although it could (and perhaps should) have been rejected [7]).
37 Contrary to the position which both parties adopted in the first appeals, the primary argument for the Council on this occasion is that the unamended Act and the unamended regulation do not apply in relation to the remediation development application [8] because it had not been "made" before 1 July 1998 within the meaning of cl 11 of the transitional regulation. The Land and Environment Court rejected the Council's argument and accepted Remath's submission that the remediation development application had been "made" by 1 July 1998 although it was not "accompanied by" an EIS which substantially complied with s 77(3)(d) of the unamended regulations until 24 December 1999.
38 The essential argument for each party can be briefly stated. According to Remath, a development application was "made" for the purpose of cl 11 of the transitional clause when a development application in the prescribed form was lodged with the Council in accordance with ss 77(a) and (b) of the unamended Act. It is not in dispute that that was done prior to 1 July 1998. According to the Council, a development application was not "made" for the purpose of cl 11 of the transitional regulation until all elements of s 77(3) were substantially complied with. It is not in dispute that that was not until after 1 July 1998.
39 As Remath pointed out, the decision under appeal is consistent with the decision of the present Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court in Holiday Villages (Byron Bay) Pty Ltd v Byron Council.[9] The decision in Holiday Villages [10] was a sequel to her Honour's decision in Byron Shire Businesses for the Future Inc. v Byron Council. [11]
40 Section s 77(3)(d1) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act required the development application which was the subject of those decisions to be accompanied by a fauna impact statement. That was not done. It was held in Byron Shire Businesses [12] that, in consequence, the Council had no power to determine the development application and the development consent which it had granted was void and of no effect. That decision was consistent with the decisions of this Court in Council of the City of Penrith v Waste Mangement Authority of NSW [13]. It was also consistent with the later decisions of this Court in Helman v Byron Shire Council [14] and on the first appeals.
41 The Land and Environment Court had also held on a number of occasions that non-compliance with a requirement under s 77 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act could ".. be cured at any time up until the determination of the application….". [15]
42 In Byron Shire Businesses, [16] Pearlman J referred to both these principles. Her Honour said: [17]
"In my opinion,.. there is a threshold or intermediate question to be determined before the Council can exercise its power under s 91(1). Is there a development application to be determined? That question must be answered in every case but it is not required to be answered at the time of lodgment. It must have been answered, however, at the time when a consent authority comes to make its determination to grant or refuse consent.
The question is not simply whether a development application in the prescribed form has been made. It is, rather, whether a development application which fulfils the statutory requirements has been made. The statutory requirements are to be found in s 77. If they have not been met, then the Council has no basis for making a determination to grant or refuse consent. The foundation for the exercise of its power is missing, because the development application before it does not comply with the statutory requirements. The Council is not empowered to make a determination under s 91(1). It must reject the development application, not determine it by the refusal of consent (although that may, in practical terms, amount to the same thing).
The process which I have just described has been applied by the Court in class 1 proceedings, where the Court is acting as the consent authority pursuant to its powers under s 39 of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979: see, eg, Leatch v National Parks and Wildlife Service (1993) 81 LGERA 270 at 279.
It is at the time of Council's consideration of whether or not to exercise its power of determination that the question arises as to whether there is or is not a development application meeting the statutory requirements. It is possible, therefore, for a non-compliance with s 77 to be rectified at any time prior to that determination. If there is a development application which does meet the statutory requirements, then the Council proceeds to a determination by taking into account the matters which s 90 requires it to consider in determining the development application, and it must then proceed to that determination in exercise of its powers under s 91(1).
It follows from the conclusion I have reached that it is not fatal to a development application to be unaccompanied by any document required under s 77 at the time of its lodgment."
43 After concluding that it had not been reasonably open to the Council, on the material before it, to conclude that there was not likely to be a significant effect on the environment of endangered fauna and that accordingly a fauna impact statement had been required, her Honour continued:[18]
"What, then, is the consequence of my conclusion that the Council's decision was not reasonably open to it? As I have already said, the determination of whether or not the proposed development will have a significant effect on the environment of endangered fauna is a threshold question. It requires determination in order to determine in turn the question of whether a development application conforms to the statutory requirements of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. The Council's power to proceed to a determination of a development application by granting or refusing consent under s 91 of the Act is predicated upon having before it a development application which complies with the statutory requirements which the Act has imposed, and which are to be found in s 77.
…
… the Council's determination of the threshold question in a manner not reasonably open to it invalidates the very foundation of the development consent process. The Council could not proceed to exercise its power of determination under s 91 because a pre-condition for the exercise of that power did not exist.
…
… Without a proper determination of the threshold question in those circumstances, a development application which complied with the requirements of s 77 could not exist, and without such a conforming development application, the Council was not empowered to exercise its power of determination of the development application under s 91.
The Council's determination of the development application was therefore of no effect, and as a consequence the development consent which it granted is void and of no effect."
44 The development application which was the subject of the development consent which was declared void in Byron Shire Businesses [19] had been lodged on 1 April 1993. The Council's void development consent was granted on 11 November that year. On 1 July 1994 the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 1980 was amended. Subsequently, a new regulation (the "1994 Regulation") came into force on 1 September 1994. The judgment in Byron Shire Businesses [20] was delivered on 30 September 1994. The developer sought a declaration that its development application was "… a development application made to the [Byron Council] … on 1 April 1993 .." and that accordingly it was not "designated development" within the meaning of Sch 3 to the 1994 Regulation. The question thus raised depended upon cl 49 of the 1994 Regulation, which provided:
"49 (1) Development described in Schedule 3 is declared to be designated development for the purpose of the Act .
(2) Schedule 3, as in force when a development application is made, continues to apply to and in respect of the development application regardless of any subsequent substitution or amendment of that Schedule, and the application is unaffected by any such substitution or amendment.
(3) References in subclause (2) to Schedule 3 include references to Schedule 3 to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 1980."
45 Pearlman J made a declaration that the development application was "… a development application made to the [Byron Council] … on 1 April 1993." Her Honour said:
"It can be seen from s 77(3) that a number of requirements must be fulfilled. A development application in the prescribed form must be made to the consent authority, and it must be accompanied by a fee and contain or be accompanied by certain information and particulars. If the relevant circumstances exist it must be accompanied by an environmental impact statement or a fauna impact statement or both.