New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT ACT 1979 - SECT 2.18

2.18 Members of local planning panels

(1) The members of a local planning panel are to be appointed by the relevant council.

(2) Each local planning panel is to comprise (subject to this section) the following 4 members--

(a) an approved independent person appointed as the chairperson of the panel with relevant expertise that includes expertise in law or in government and public administration,

(b) 2 other approved independent persons with relevant expertise,

(c) a representative of the local community who is not a councillor or mayor.

(3) A person is not eligible to be a member of a local planning panel constituted by a council if the person is--

(a) a councillor of that or any other council, or

(b) a property developer within the meaning of section 53 of the Electoral Funding Act 2018 , or

Note--: Section 53 of the Electoral Funding Act 2018 provides that
"property developer" includes a person who is a close associate of a property developer.

(c) a real estate agent within the meaning of the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 .

However, a person is not ineligible to be a member of a local planning panel merely because the person carries on the business of a planning consultant.

(4) For the purposes of this section, an
"approved independent person" is an independent person approved by the Minister for appointment to the local planning panel or a person selected from a pool of independent persons approved by the Minister for appointment to the local planning panel. The Minister may approve different pools of independent persons.

(5) If the area of the relevant council is divided into wards, the council is to appoint representatives of the local community for each ward as members of the local planning panel. All those representatives are entitled to attend a meeting of the local planning panel, but only one of them designated by the chairperson of the panel comprises the quorum for the meeting and is entitled to vote and be heard on a matter before the panel.

(6) The representative so designated by the chairperson for a matter before the panel is to be the representative for the ward that the chairperson considers is most closely associated with that matter.

(7) Relevant expertise for the purposes of this section is expertise in at least one area of planning, architecture, heritage, the environment, urban design, economics, traffic and transport, law, engineering, tourism or government and public administration.