Planning and Environmental Law ( urban design and planning)

Type of subject is (PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT LAW ) in urban design and planning

This Assessment is 5 questions(Problem question to be given in class. (Parts 3, 4 and 5 EPAA). Involves short, prose answers to a number of sub-questions, or a case note)

Word limit: 2000 words (indicative only, however the best answers will be concise),

The purpose of these questions

The purpose of the following questions is to assist you to learn different aspects of the content and practice of planning and environment law.

The first 3 questions are to some degree aimed at:
developing your ability to comprehend what the respective judges have said in their judgements, and
in doing so, also to give you deeper insights and understanding of:
o how judges reason, and
o the particular planning law issues addressed by the judges.

In the forth question we seek to enable you to get a better understanding of planning and environment law in its social and political context.

The fifth question has been posed with the aim of helping you to get a better insight into:
not only legal reasoning (what does this term mean?) [Is it just problem solving “ think of the first of David Brigden s Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) which he understands you share]; but also
what is necessary to be done to obtain a development consent, and to do this to a high standard (which is another very worthy ILO).

I hope that the references are from attached files and Web sites attached
It is possible to refer to the other references from the Internet but one or two only, but I prefer to be from the attached files.
Attachments
1- subject outline Autumn
2- two websites for Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 is Important reference
a- http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/scanact/inforce/NONE/0
b- http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/
3- Subject Readers is Important reference
4- some of slide lectures (PowerPoints) because most of lectures are from ( two websites for Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 is Important reference and subject Readers is Important reference)
5- Land and Environment Court, Planning Principles and Appeal Process – Senior Commissioner Tim Moore
7- Threatened Species and Biodiversity – Blacktown subdivision case study and Biobanking
8- Other materials were taken in the lectures

Questions:
Question 1 (4 marks)

In Andrews v Botany Bay City Council [2008] NSWLEC 96 a developer had obtained development consent for the construction of a residential and commercial building in an old industrial area. One of the conditions of consent required the underground placement of power cables, consistent with the relevant development control plan. The developer objected to this condition.

Describe what the developer did to pursue the objection, what the outcome of the proceedings was, and the reasons for the decision.

Question 2 (4 marks)

In Sevenex Pty Limited v Blue Mountains City Council [2011] NSWCA 223 the operator of a tourist cafe at Echo Point near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains wanted to expand activities by reorganising the lower ground floor of the premises to incorporate a large a mixed media exhibition.

Was this permissible under the planning law?

Give reasons.

Question 3 (4 marks)

Development consent to build a school was declared invalid in Hoxton Park Residents Action Group Inc v Liverpool City Council [2011] NSWCA 349.

Why?

Question 4 (8 marks)

In Gurran N, Australian Urban Land Use Planning, Sydney University Press, 2007, the author identifies major themes of good urban planning, including:
a. Planning helps to establish the conditions needed to protect and create attractive and efficient urban environments (page 9);
b. Planning helps to provide public goods (such as open space or community infrastructure) that might otherwise be underprovided by the free market, through the sustainability paradigm (pages 9 and 40);
c. Planning should promote greater social equity, by providing housing for mixed communities within new and changing areas (page 9);
d. Planning should provide a process for public participation in decision-making (page 9);
e. Planning should protect the environment (page 9);
f. Planning should provide a strong strategic framework (goals, criteria and standards) for future development (page 10);
g. Planning should pursue ecologically sustainable development (integrating short and long term environmental, equity and economy considerations), not economic growth alone (pages 34 and 36)

Discuss the extent to which the cases in questions 1-3 above illustrate the operation of, or the lack of operation of, any of the above themes.

Question 5(10 marks)

Seeking a development consent?

You are the property manager of Speculation Pty Ltd.

It is Friday at close of business. Your boss catches you as you are about to leave the office.

One of her contacts has told her at lunch that there is a large parcel of land, with an area of more than 100ha, up for auction at 2pm the next day.

The land is near High Range (near Mittagong) and straddles the Wombeyan Caves Road. It consists of a number of different lots.

She recalls roaming over it when a child, when the family car broke down. The road was in very poor condition, with the ruts having caused the car suspension to break. The land was like a moonscape. She remembers it being on a wide ridge or plateau (but you have some doubts if she knows the correct geographical terms) with rock outcrops everywhere, cows and horses grazing, occasional clumps of trees, and creeks and gullies that led to a cliff-line, and in the valley below there was thick eucalypt forest that stretched for miles. She was a bit vague but thought that this bush was to the North West, North and North East of the site. The only other information she gives you is that the land she is interested in is to the north of the Womeyan Caves Road, and roughly dissected by Wanganderry Road.

Your boss asks you to advise, by midday Saturday, whether there is any chance of getting development consent for a quarry on the land, saying that the minimum feasible area for a quarry site would be 20-30ha.

She particularly wants to know:
whether the planning controls allow quarrying;
the major issues (five or six) which will need to be addressed in a development application, (and she wants to know this irrespective of whether the planning controls allow quarrying or not: i.e. you are to assume that quarrying is permissible);
what conditions of consent could be expected in relation to those major issues (and, again, she wants to know this irrespective of whether the planning controls allow quarrying or not: i.e. you are to assume that quarrying is permissible).

Your recourses, for preparing your answer, are the internet and what you have learnt at Lectures at the university.
Remember to include the sources of your information, and correctly refer to that information, as your boss will wish to review your logic and interpretation by checking the sources herself.

In addition to answering these questions, please:
give your reasons for the answers you have come to; and
at the end of your answer briefly record the actions you took in finding your answers.