Australia, July 23 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 23:

1. COMMISSIONER: This is a Class 1 Development Appeal pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) being an appeal against the refusal of Development Application DA 10.2023.101.1 seeking consent for the construction of a farm building and access road (Proposed Development) at 162 Princes Highway Kiama legally described as Lot 1 in DP 1241447 (the Site).

2. The Court arranged a conciliation conference under s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) between the parties, which has been held on 15 April, 6 May, 12 June 2025. I have presided over the conciliation conference.

3. The parties agree that all Contentions raised in the Statement of Facts and Contentions filed on 6 December 2024 have been resolved by the preparation of the:

1) agreed conditions of consent (Annexure A to the s 34 Agreement);

2) amended plans and materials referenced in par B to the Section 34 Agreement.

4. At the conciliation conference, the parties reached agreement as to the terms of a decision in the proceedings that would be acceptable to the parties. This decision involved the Court upholding the appeal and granting development consent to the development application subject to conditions.

5. Under s 34(3) of the LEC Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' decision if the parties' decision is a decision that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions. In making the orders to give effect to the agreement between the parties, I was not required to, and have not, made any merit assessment of the issues that were originally in dispute between the parties.

6. The parties' decision involves the Court exercising the function under s 4.16 of the EPA Act to grant consent to the development application.

7. There are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised. The parties identified the jurisdictional prerequisites of relevance in these proceedings to be the terms of the Kiama Local Environmental Plan 2011 (KLEP) and s 2.119 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Transport and Infrastructure) 2021 regarding development on a property with frontage to a classified road. The parties explained how the jurisdictional prerequisites have been satisfied in an agreed jurisdictional note provided to the court.

8. Under the KLEP, the Site is situated predominantly within Zone RU2 Rural Landscape, with small parcels of the land classified as Zone C2 Environmental Conservation and Zone C3 Environmental Management. "Farm Buildings" are permissible with consent in the RU2 zone.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19785a045c37d7e102c6e324)

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