Australia, June 30 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 30:
1. COMMISSIONER: The small township of Mardi is located inland from the central coast of NSW, a few kilometres from Wyong. To the west of Mardi lies the Old Maitland Road, along which is located the Mardi dam that is a source of drinking water for the community nearby.
2. To the north of Mardi Dam lies a large parcel of land that is proposed as a site for development, and which adjoins the Ourimbah State Forest to its north and east.
3. To this end, the Applicant in these proceedings, Stevens Holdings (Stevens), lodged development application no. DA/765/2021 with Central Coast Council on 23 July 2021 seeking consent for subdivision of land into 246 lots (the original DA).
4. The DA was refused by the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel on 21 February 2022, after which a request for Review under s 8.2 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) was lodged, subsequent to which the DA was amended to reduce the subdivision to 219 lots.
5. Stevens appealed the refusal by filing an application in Class 1 of the court's jurisdiction on 20 February 2023, under s 8.7 of the EPA Act.
6. The Court granted leave to Stevens to amend the development application on a number of occasions prior to, and during the hearing.
7. On the fifth day of the hearing, Stevens sought an adjournment to prepare amended plans and other documents responsive to contentions pressed by the Council.
8. The Council did not oppose the application and likewise sought time to prepare a further amended statement of facts and contentions.
9. I granted the adjournment and directed that amended documents be filed and served by timeframes that were largely met by the parties.
*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/197103a83655e3818e79ed5a)
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
