David Carey

Wind and solar power have gained in popularity amongst Australian politicians in recent years, with a number of announcements being made...

Privatisation of public assets has been a relatively bipartisan theme of Australian politics for the past 30 years. Many infrastructure...

Developers would be aware that major changes have been made by the NSW Government to the suite of State Environmental Planning Policies...

What relationship is there between how we design our cities and the amount of oil that we consume? The evidence is that there is a strong...

Road maintenance/renewal is typically the one of the largest components of Council budgets in NSW and represents a substantial cost for...

Happy new year to all readers of this blog! I hope to make more frequent posts this year if workload/time permits. It is a worthwhile...

Over the weekend, I came across this documentary, which was produced in Canada in 2006. It presents a critique of suburban sprawl as a...

The NSW Government has greatly expanded the types of development that can proceed as Complying Development in recent years through the...

This blog post looks at how three modes of government might operate. The first is government run in the interests of it's rulers, the...

This blog is provided for educational purposes and as a guide/starting point for those looking to learn more about the NSW planning...

The NSW government has made many changes to planning legislation in recent months under the title "COVID-19 response and recovery". A...

Under the NSW planning system, not only do new buildings generally require approval but the "use" of buildings and their fitout also...

Most forms of development in NSW requires some form of consent - usually from the local Council, although increasingly in many instances...

As I mentioned in my book, the lodgement of Development Applications in NSW has historically been a very paper-based process which has...

The NSW government announced the creation of a new State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) on 20 December which will come into effect...

A copy of my book, "Understanding Local Government and Town Planning in NSW" is now available. This book has been prepared as a practical...

Pubs and bars can often be controversial developments. This is particularly where they are proposed surrounding residential areas or...

It is often asked how approvals for water and sewer are addressed in NSW and how this considered as part of the DA process. This blog...

In NSW, our Torrens/Strata Title system of land registration involves the State Government maintaining a centralised register of land...

In my last post, I looked at the powers of local government in NSW and described how they are generally quite limited compared to many...