Western Australian Current Acts

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ACT 2005 - SECT 275

275 .         Application of legal instruments and matters to which Commission must have due regard

        (1)         This section applies if the Commission is required to consider and determine a development application under section 274.

        (2)         Subsections (3) and (4) apply in relation to any legal instrument that would, apart from this Part, regulate, or otherwise apply in relation to, any of the following —

            (a)         the making of the development application;

            (b)         the development application itself;

            (c)         the consideration or determination of the development application.

        (3)         Without limiting section 270(1), for the purposes of the Commission’s consideration and determination of the development application —

            (a)         the legal instrument does not apply; and

            (b)         the Commission is not otherwise bound or restricted by the legal instrument.

        (4)         However, in considering and determining the development application, the Commission may do any of the following —

            (a)         anything that a normal decision-maker, or any other person or body dealing with the development application, could, apart from this Part, have done under the legal instrument;

            (b)         request any person or body to perform (in whole or in part and with or without modifications) any functions that the person or body would, apart from this Part, have had in relation to the development application under the legal instrument;

            (c)         otherwise involve, or consult, a person or body referred to in paragraph (b);

            (d)         otherwise apply (with or without modifications), or have regard to, the legal instrument.

        (5)         Without limiting subsection (3), the Commission —

            (a)         in considering and determining the development application, is not limited to planning considerations and may have regard to any other matter affecting the public interest; and

            (b)         may grant approval for development even if —

                  (i)         there has been a contravention by any person or body of a legal instrument referred to in subsection (2); or

                  (ii)         there would, apart from this Part, have been such a contravention.

        (6)         In considering and determining the development application, the Commission must have due regard to —

            (a)         the purpose and intent of any planning scheme that has effect in the locality to which the development application relates; and

            (b)         the need to ensure the orderly and proper planning, and the preservation of amenity, of that locality; and

            (c)         the need to facilitate development in response to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; and

            (d)         any relevant State planning policies and any other relevant policies of the Commission.

        [Section 275 inserted: No. 26 of 2020 s. 4.]