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"Hands off our LEPs!" campaign
- December 2013: draft LEP now released -



NSW Planning System Reforms campaign webpage

What is a LEP and why is it so important?
(click the image to access a scrollable panorama)
This panorama shows how urban development occurs in close proximity to Blue Mountains National Park.
The current Blue Mountains LEPs contain development guidelines that aim to limit hard surfaces and control impacts from stormwater runoff.
(panorama courtesy of Panedia)

A Local Environmental Plan (LEP) determines where development occurs, outlines what needs to be considered when development is proposed (e.g. impacts on the natural environment and cultural heritage) and sets development standards.

LEPs are therefore the major determinant of where future development occurs in the Blue Mountains, what it will look like and how the natural environment and urban character will be protected from adverse development impacts.

There are two current LEPs in the Blue Mountains: LEP 1991 covers areas on the edges of the townships at the urban-bushland (or National Park) interface and LEP 2005 covers urban areas in the townships. A third planning document, LEP No. 4, covers some urban matters deferred when LEP 2005 was gazetted.

In line with NSW Planning department requirements, Blue Mountains City Council has been working to consolidate these three LEPs into a city-wide plan that meets the State government's "one size fits all" Standard Instrument LEP format. You can find out more about the LEP process, and download relevant Council meeting documents, on Council's website here.

A history of the Society's campaign prior to release of the Draft Local Environmental Plan 2013 is archived here.

Public exhibition of Draft LEP 2013

The Blue Mountains Draft Local Environmental Plan 2013 (DLEP) is open for public comment for 13 weeks from Wednesday 4 December 2013 to WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH 2014. Comprehensive information about the DLEP and how to make a submission is available on Blue Mountains City Council's website.

Requests to the Planning Minister to defer exhibition until 2014 because of Council's heavy staff commitment to the bushfire recovery and rebuilding process were not successful. However lobbying by the Society and Blue Mountains City Council did result in an extension of time from the anticipated eight week exhibition period.

You can look at the draft LEP by:

How the Society is responding to DLEP 2013

The Society will be making a detailed submission on environmental issues in DLEP 2013, as well as assisting its members and the Blue Mountains community to make informed comment on environmental matters in the Draft LEP.

The Society is planning a series of events throughout February and early March to inform residents about the draft LEP, and to assist residents if they want to make a submission.

Material to assist you in making a submission

Information sheets and guides

The Society is preparing a series of information sheets and guides that will cater for people's various levels of interest in the detail of the Draft LEP.

Some people may only want to find out how the DLEP affects their block, or a block they are interested in, and make a submission on that. Others may just want to make a submission on the "big ticket" environmental issues we have identified in the DLEP.

Still others might want to engage more extensively with the DLEP and put in a detailed submission on a broad range of environmental issues.

Information sheets and guides:


Village-specific information sheets [AVAILABLE LATE JAN/EARLY FEB 2014]


Form letter

Here is a form letter (pdf) and form letter (Word doc) in a simple format you can use as a basis for your own submission.

Fill in your own comments on what aspects of the Draft LEP you support and what you disagree with or want strengthened or added in.

Here are detailed submission letters (Word doc) with spaces to fill in your personal details and comments. Version for residents of the Blue Mountains. Version for regular visitors to the Blue Mountains.

More information sheets and guides may be provided if there is an identified need.


Viewing the DLEP online

Here is a brief "user's guide" to the information available online at the Council's website above and how to find it. You may want to read the general information provided by the Council before looking at the Draft LEP written instrument and related documents (in Library).


REMEMBER SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH 2014.

The Society's information sheets and guides include instructions on how to make a submission, but you can also find this information on the Council's website at http://bluemountainshaveyoursay.com.au/draftlep2013



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– the Darug and Gundungurra people –
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