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 along with your full name and contact address. Please indicate the relevant development application number and development site address. 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. Council's planning controls are available to view on the website at Controls & Conditions. 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.
- Any information included in the submission may be made available to third parties in accordance with relevant legislation. If you have any concerns about confidentiality, please contact Council's Information Access Unit on 9265 9333.
- 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. Applications which involve minor development or less complex issues will ordinarily be determined under delegation of Council, by the Director of City Planning and Regulatory Services.
- If the application is to be determined by a Committee or Council, Council officers will contact those 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 and its Planning Development and Transport Committee meet on the Monday before. The CSPC generally meets every three weeks on Thursday evenings. The public is welcome to attend these meetings, which are held in the Council Chambers at Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street, and are advised to seek further information on the dates and times of these meetings from Council’s Secretariat Unit on 9265 9333. Members of the public can ask to speak at Committee Meetings, and if this is possible, will 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.
