Notification and Exhibition. Section 7.5(1) of the Act precludes a planning agreement from being entered into, amended or revoked unless public notice is given of the proposed agreement, amendment or revocation. The exhibition must include the draft planning agreement and explanatory note. Clause 25D(1) of the Regulations states that a draft planning agreement should be exhibited concurrent with a Development Application or application to modify an Environmental Planning Instrument, if practicable. In order to satisfy this requirement, a prospective applicant needs to notify Council of their intent to negotiate a planning agreement prior to the lodgement of any Development Application or concurrent with any application to modify an Environmental Planning Instrument. Applicants should note that extensive delays can arise as a result of delaying the submission of a letter of offer and a draft planning agreement concurrent with a Development Application or application to modify an Environmental Planning Instrument. The statutory exhibition period for a draft planning agreement is a minimum of 28 days. Council encourages the public to make submissions on planning agreements. This will allow Council to better understand local needs and permit fine tuning of the planning obligations set out in the planning agreement. Following the exhibition of the draft planning agreement, public submissions will be assessed by the Council when it considered whether it should enter the proposed planning agreement.
