NSW takes what its planning department calls a risk-based approach: the bigger a development’s likely effect on traffic, noise, privacy and sunlight next door, the more assessment it gets. Minor work can be exempt, routine work that meets fixed standards can take a complying development certificate, and the rest needs development consent, usually from the local council.
General informationThis page summarises the NSW planning department’s published guidance as at October 2026. It is not planning advice for any site. Which path applies to a project is a question for the council, a registered certifier or a planning professional, and the department’s own pages are the place to check.
Three paths, one question at a time
The department sets the three paths out in order of how much they ask. Read from the top, each question either settles the path or passes the project down to the next.
- Is it minor enough to be exempt?
Exempt development has minimal impact on the site and its neighbours. If it meets the standards in the state’s Exempt and Complying Development Codes policy (the Codes SEPP) or the council’s local environmental plan, it needs no consent or approval at all. The department’s examples are small: barbecues, small fences, satellite dishes and small decks.
- Does it meet every complying development standard?
Complying development is planning approval and construction approval in one, for straightforward work that can be assessed on a fast track by a council or an accredited certifier. It covers homes, businesses and industry: a new house, alterations and additions, new industrial buildings, demolition, and a change of business use. The project has to meet predetermined standards in the Codes SEPP or the local plan, and because the work is larger than exempt work, a certifier signs it off.
- If not, a development application
Everything else needs development consent under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The application, a DA, usually goes to the council, made up of the standard forms, supporting technical reports and plans. Where complying development is checked against pre-set standards, a DA gets what the department’s table calls a “merit assessment”.
The department’s “as little as” for a fast-tracked complying development approval; 10 days on the Housing Pattern Book pathway.
The average time to determine a development application, on the same page, updated 26 June 2026.
Two codes for low-rise housing
Two codes within the Codes SEPP deal with low-rise housing. The Low-Rise Housing Diversity Code lets dual occupancies, manor houses and terraces of up to two storeys go through complying development. That is open only in the R1, R2, R3 and RU5 zones, and only where the council’s local plan already permits that kind of housing.
The Pattern Book Development Code 2025 is quicker again for low-rise homes built from pattern book designs: a 10-day approval, with neighbours told at least 7 days before it issues, against 20 days of assessment and 14 days of neighbour notice for ordinary complying development.
The government has proposed changes to complying development, including variations to some development standards. They were exhibited from 14 May to 24 June 2026, and the department says it is reviewing the feedback before finalising them later this year.
Who decides a development application
A DA is not always decided by the council that assesses it. Three kinds of decision-maker appear on the department’s pages. The project’s size and sensitivity, and since January 2026 whether the council has a local planning panel, decide which one sees it.
| Decision-maker | Typical projects | Members |
|---|---|---|
| Council staff | Most small housing development | Staff such as the assessment officer, a senior officer, the manager or director of development assessment, or the general manager |
| Local planning panel | Applications where the council’s assessment could be compromised (usually an estimated development cost of $5 million to $30 million), that draw many complaints, that are sensitive (such as demolishing a heritage building), or that are of strategic importance to the state ; since 16 January 2026, also new regionally significant applications in its council area | A chair and two experts appointed by the council from a pool the Minister has approved, plus a community representative the council recruits |
| Sydney or regional planning panel | Regionally significant development, generally with an estimated development cost over $30 million , where the council has no local planning panel, plus some applications lodged before the January 2026 changes | At least three: a chair and two members appointed by the Minister, and the council may nominate two more (the department’s page of May 2023) |
There are nine of the larger panels, five for Sydney and four for the regions, and the department says none is subject to the direction of the Minister for Planning. Its page on regionally significant development, last updated on 4 May 2023, says a council may identify a project as regionally significant before or after the DA is lodged. The council still assesses and exhibits the application as usual, then reports to the panel rather than to its own officers. The local panels’ members come from a list the Minister approved for a three-year term, which runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2027.
The Planning Systems Reforms Act 2025, which the department calls the biggest overhaul of the planning Act in a generation, brought the first changes to planning panels on 16 January 2026. They apply in council areas that already have a local planning panel and are meant to return more development to local decision. The department’s fact sheet of January 2026 says local planning panels exist in every Greater Sydney council area and in Wingecarribee, Central Coast and Wollongong, and that regionally significant applications lodged there after 16 January 2026 go to the local panel, which decides them for the Sydney or regional panel. The four regional panels still decide them in council areas without a local panel. The 2023 page above predates these changes, so the fact sheet is the place to confirm a panel’s role.
When something goes wrong with a panel
For most complaints about a local planning panel, the department points people to the council first; the NSW Ombudsman can also take up grievances. The department does not deal with complaints itself, though it can pass them to the right authority and review how a council handled one.
The next guide follows a development application from lodging to decision, including what to do with a refusal.