NEW SOUTH WALES COURT ISSUES JUDGEMENT ON FSLA PROPERTY HOLDINGS V/S SUTHERLAND SHIRE COUNCIL CASE

Australia, July 24 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 24:

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 DA24/0089 seeking consent for the demolition of existing structures and construction of a childcare centre with basement parking (Proposed Development) at 17-19 Loftus Avenue, Loftus legally described as Lots 49 and 48 in DP 13848. (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 31 March 2025. I presided over the conciliation conference.

3. 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.

4. 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.

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

6. 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 State Environmental Planning Policy (Industry and Employment) 2021 (Industry and employment SEPP) as to signage and various provisions of the Sutherland Local Environmental Plan 2015 (SLEP). The parties explained how the jurisdictional prerequisites have been satisfied which I now address below.

7. The development application was accompanied by a "development application signature form" signed by Andrew Nicholas Hastie, director of FSLA Property Holdings Pty Ltd the registered proprietor of Lots 48 and 49 in DP 13848, which is found at tab 10 of the Class 1 Application at folio 294.

8. The parties rely on the Applicant's Statement of Environmental Effects (SEE) (Class 1 Application, tab 12) to assist in assessing the relevant matters.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19799ebb17c73f96cd4372ef)

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