What it does
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (the Regulation) is the key subordinate instrument that operationalises the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the Act). It does not itself zone land or set high-level policy; instead, it supplies the machinery for how planning decisions are made, documented, notified, and enforced in New South Wales. Its core function is to prescribe the administrative, procedural, and technical steps that must be followed when a proponent seeks development consent, a complying development certificate, or approval for State significant infrastructure.
In substance, the Regulation does four things. First, it defines key terms and concepts left open by the Act (see s 3 and Schedule 7). For example, it prescribes what constitutes “estimated development cost” (s 6, substituted 2023 (512), Sch 1[1]), the abbreviations that must be used in development applications for building materials (s 5), and the precise meaning of “BASIX development” (s 27, as amended). These definitions are not merely interpretive aids; they trigger or disapply entire Parts of the Regulation. A development application that meets the BASIX thresholds must be accompanied by a BASIX certificate issued no more than three months earlier (s 27(1)(a)); failure to do so renders the application incomplete and liable to rejection under s 39(1)(b).
Second, the Regulation establishes the end-to-end workflow for development applications (Part 3), modification applications (Part 5), and complying development certificates (Part 6). A development application must be in the approved form, contain all mandatory information and documents (including, where relevant, a statement by a qualified designer for residential apartment development under s 29), and be lodged on the NSW planning portal (s 24(1)). The Regulation then sets out who may make an application (s 23), the additional information that must be supplied for integrated development (s 25), biodiversity credits (s 28), and council-related applications (s 30B, inserted 2022 (579), Sch 1[1]). It imposes strict timelines for notification (ss 56–59), requests for further information (s 36), and determination (Part 4, Division 4). If a consent authority fails to determine a development application within the prescribed assessment period, it is taken to have refused consent (s 91(1)), triggering appeal rights.