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LAND (PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT) (BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2003 (NO 1) (NO 7 OF 2003)
2003
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN
CAPITAL
TERRITORY
LAND (PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT) ACT 1991
LAND (PLANNING AND
ENVIRONMENT) (BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2003 (No 1)
SL 2003-7
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Circulated by authority of
Simon Corbell MLA
Minister for Planning
AUSTRALIAN
CAPITAL TERRITORY
LAND (PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT) (BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY)
AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2003 (No 1)
SUBORDINATE LAW No. SL
2003-7
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
These are amending regulations. They amend the Land (Planning and
Environment) (Bushfire Emergency) Regulations 2003 (“the Principal
Regulations”).
The Principal Regulations apply to buildings and
structures affected by the bushfires of January 2003 and set out conditions
under which they may be demolished and the land cleared without a development
application under the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991.
The
amending regulations simplify requirements for the rebuilding of buildings and
structures destroyed or damaged by the bushfires.
They provide for the
identification of buildings to which exemptions may apply.
No
development application requirements then apply if buildings or structures are
rebuilt as they stood just before the bushfires or are built in a form that was
at one time approved.
Neighbour consultation requirements that may be
part of a development application do not apply to rebuilding a building or
structure which is similar in scale to one that was destroyed or damaged and
generally complies with the requirements of the Residential Design Codes that
form part of the Territory Plan.
This second exemption is limited to
someone who owned the land at the time of the bushfires. This restriction is
intended to limit concessions to owners affected by the bushfires and prevent a
speculative purchaser from benefiting by the concessions on public
notification.
Other applicable exemptions for minor changes in approved buildings or
structures appear in items 16 to 19 of Schedule 1 to the Land (Planning and
Environment) Regulations 1992.
Details
Regulation 1 is a formal regulation that gives the name of the amending regulations.
Regulation 2 is a formal regulation that links the commencement of the
amending regulations to their notification on the legislation register.
Regulation 3 is a formal regulation that identifies the principal
regulations.
Regulation 4 inserts a new part heading. In combination with other
changes, the effect is to divide the amended principal regulations into three
parts, of which “preliminary matters” and “clearing
land” represent the original regulations, which are then slightly altered
by the amending regulations to make them consistent with the enlarged scope of
the regulations as a whole, while “rebuilding” contains the bulk of
the new provisions.
Regulations 5 of the principal regulations sets out the main object of the
regulations. Amending Regulation 5 rewords that object so that it refers
to rebuilding (of which clearing may be part) and not to clearing alone.
The revised heading inserted by regulation 6 is in accordance with the
change made by regulation 4.
Amending regulation 7 gives a new title to regulation 7 of the
Principal Regulations, in accordance with the change made by regulation
4.
Amending regulation 8 alters regulation 7 (3) in accordance with the
change made by regulation 4.
Regulation 7(4)
Amending
regulation 9 alters regulation 7(4) in accordance with the change made by
regulation 4.
New Part 3
Amending regulation 10 inserts a new Part heading and new regulations
10 to 13 into the Principal Regulations.
The new heading for Part 3
is in accordance with the change made by regulation 4.
Part 6 of the
Land (Planning and Environment) Act defines certain activities as development
and sets out approval requirements for them. New regulation 10 identifies
circumstances in which construction is considered to be rebuilding of a building
or structure affected by the bushfire emergency. It is then exempted by new
regulations 12 to 13 from all or part of these approval
requirements.
Regulation 7(1) of the principal regulations allows the
Minister responsible for the regulations to declare that the regulations apply
to certain land. New regulation 10 defines a fire-caused rebuilding
development. It must take place on land that has been identified under
regulation 7(1), and may involve either the replacement of a building or
structure destroyed during the bushfire emergency of January 2003 or the
alteration of a building or structure damaged during this period. If the new
building or structure is a replacement, it must be of the same type as the one
it replaces. For instance a swimming pool may not replace a retaining wall,
even though both are structures.
New regulation 11 sets out the
circumstances in which a proposal for the construction of a building or
structure is to be considered to have been approved. Approval for construction
or alteration or for key elements of it may have been given at any time under
the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991 or the repealed Buildings (Design
and Siting ) Act 1964. This does not include an approval that was the subject
of an undecided application for review at the time of the bushfire emergency or
an approval where an application for review could still have been made at that
time.
New regulation 12 exempts rebuilding if the building or
structure is the same as one previously approved. The approved work need not
have been constructed before the bushfire.
New regulation 13
exempts rebuilding from the neighbour consultation and objections provided for
in the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991.
This exemption does not
affect the requirements of the Act for consultation with other government
agencies on tree protection, heritage listed places and environmental matters,
or if the land is no longer owned by the person who held it at the beginning of
the bushfire emergency (apart from someone who was legally committed to the
purchase at that time).
If this exemption is to apply, the number of
dwellings involved may not increase, the height of the building or structure may
be reduced but not increased, the gross floor area of the building or structure
may change but may not increase by over 15 % and, for residential buildings,
setbacks from boundaries may change but must be at least the minimum for that
kind of building under the Territory Plan (except that if a lesser setback was
approved for construction or alteration at any time and is part of the plan to
be followed in the rebuilding it need only provide that lesser setback).
Regulation 11 adds to the dictionary that is part of the principal
regulations items that give the meaning of references to “dwelling”,
fire-caused rebuilding development” “gross floor area”,
“height” and “setback”.
Of these “dwelling”, “gross floor area”,
“height” and “setback” are given the same meaning as in
Part D (Definition of terms) of the Written Statement of the Territory
Plan.
Financial Implications
Nil.