Planning alert - Establishment of the Development Coordination Authority

On Thursday 11 December 2025, the Development Coordination Authority (DCA) was formally established under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW).  The DCA being a new authority within the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.  Aided by its experts, the DCA is designed to provide input and support planning decisions around development applications and rezonings.

To implement the main operative functions of the DCA, amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulations 2021 (EPA Regs) and environmental planning instruments (EPIs) are still needed.

Last week the Government released a package of documents for public consultation about the proposed changes to the EPA Regs and EPIs.  The Government plans for the changes to commence on 1 July 2026.

At a high level, expert input will be provided centrally by the DCA and will cover:

• Statutory inputs, such as ‘general terms of approval’ under the integrated approval pathway, ‘consent’ from a concurrence authority and responses to referrals for development applications.
• Advisory inputs, such as internal advice on assessment of State significant development and State significant infrastructure applications, and internal advice on rezoning proposals, both planning proposals and State significant rezonings; external advice will be provided to councils covering matters concerning State requirements (such as whether a concurrence is needed).

The DCA will be subject to statutory timeframes:

• 28 calendar days from when a referral is made and fee paid, for a DCA to make a decision on statutory inputs.
• 2 business days from when a consent authority requests the DCA to confirm if nominated statutory inputs are required on a development application and whether the development application documentation is satisfactory, or otherwise the consent authority can accept the development application as lodged.

The package of documents on the proposed changes to the EPA Regs and EPIs, can be found here.

Previous planning reform alerts, can be found here.

If you have any questions about the DCA or would like assistance in preparing a submission, please email the authors.