Comments & Objections
Making Submissions on Development Proposals
- If you would like to comment on the proposal, email or post a submission before the closing date to the planning officer listed in the relevant notification letter. If your submission is an objection, the reasons for your objection should be clearly given.
- Council officers assess development applications against planning criteria in local planning controls and state legislation. Your submission could refer to these issues if they are relevant. Major issues considered are floorspace, height, urban design, heritage, car parking, privacy, overshadowing, and the like. However, we would like to know about the issues that are important to you.
- Council will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your submission and will carefully consider it as part of the assessment.
- Submissions are not confidential. It is Council’s policy to provide, on request, details of submissions. If you want your submission to remain confidential, you must clearly state this in writing along with the reasons.
- If amendments are made to the application before determination and Council officers consider these to be minor or to reduce impacts, you will not be re-notified. However, the City will contact you if significant changes are made to the current proposal.
- Council planning officers generally make decisions about less complex proposals or developments with less than four additional storeys. Council, its Planning Development and Transport Committee, or the Central Sydney Planning Committee (CSPC) will directly determine more significant or contentious applications. The CSPC deals with applications valued over $50 million.
- If the application is to be determined by a Committee or Council, Council officers will contact people who have made a submission, wherever possible, to inform them of the meeting date once the agenda has been published. Please provide a daytime telephone number, fax number or email address so that we can contact you, as the short time frame means it is not practical to post a letter.
- Council generally meets every third Monday at 5pm, and its Planning Development and Transport Committee meets at 5.30pm on the Monday before. The CSPC generally meets every three weeks on Thursday evenings at 6pm. The public is welcome to attend these meetings, which are held in the Council Chamber at Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street. Members of the public can ask to speak at Committee Meetings, and have three minutes to present their issues.
- Agendas and reports for Council and Committees are generally available one week before the meeting on the City’s website, www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au. Copies are also available free of charge from City of Sydney Offices.
- When a final decision is made about an application, we will inform all persons who made a submission about the outcome. For development proposals determined by Council or Committee, the minutes of meetings are available on the City’s website.
- Council staff are available to assist you. Feel free to talk with the Council planner dealing with the application about its progress and, if applicable, the possible timing of consideration by Committee.
- Should you make a submission, you must also make a public disclosure of any donation to a Councillor and/or gift to a Councillor or Council employee in the previous two (2) years. Failure to disclose relevant information is an offense under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. It is also an offence to make a false statement. Further information, including a 'Political Donation and Gifts Disclosure Statement' form and a glossary of terms, is available on Council's website in the Development section or at any of Council's office locations.
