Guidance on assessing coastal hazards under the Coastal Management SEPP.
This circular provides guidance on the assessment of coastal hazards under Chapter 2: Coastal Management of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Coastal Management Act 2016.
Circular PS 21-009 is a point-in-time, non-statutory guidance document issued by the NSW planning department on 2 December 2021 under its 'Resilience and Hazards' planning principle. Its stated purpose is to help decision-makers assess coastal hazards, pointing them to the legal framework that actually governs the assessment — Chapter 2: Coastal Management of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Coastal Management Act 2016. Because it is a circular, it does not create new legal obligations of its own; instead it explains how existing rules should be applied consistently across the state.
For a non-lawyer, the practical effect is that the circular acts as a signpost and interpretive aid. When a council or other consent authority is deciding a development application on land affected by coastal hazards (such as beach erosion, coastal inundation or cliff instability), this circular tells them how the coastal management SEPP and the Coastal Management Act feed into that assessment. It supports 'consistent application of planning principles, processes and practices' rather than imposing bespoke thresholds.
The supplied source is only the index listing of current circulars, so it confirms the circular's title, date, planning-principle category and one-sentence description, but it does not reproduce the detailed tests inside the PDF. Anyone needing the specific requirements must read the linked circular itself; the material provided here does not contain them.
NSW consent authorities assessing coastal hazards — in practice councils (and other determining bodies) deciding development applications on coastal-hazard-affected land. The source describes it as guidance rather than a binding statutory instrument.
It comes into play when a consent authority is assessing coastal hazards under Chapter 2: Coastal Management of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Coastal Management Act 2016 — that is, when determining development affected by coastal hazards.
The circular is expressly tied to Chapter 2: Coastal Management of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Coastal Management Act 2016. It also sits alongside a companion circular, PS 21-033: Planning certificates: coastal hazards, which deals with disclosure of coastal hazards on section 10.7 planning certificates, and the related hazards circular PS 21-010 on bush fire prone land.
The circular provides guidance on assessment of coastal hazards under Chapter 2: Coastal Management of State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021. The specific tests are contained in the linked PDF, not in this source listing.
Assessment of coastal hazards is to be undertaken under the Coastal Management Act 2016 alongside the SEPP. The detailed obligations are not set out in the supplied source text.
Current circulars provide point-in-time, non-statutory guidance to support consistent application of planning principles, processes and practices across NSW; they support rather than replace the statutory instruments.
This bites directly in Kiama. As a small Illawarra/South Coast coastal LGA with recognised coastal hazards (beach erosion, coastal inundation, cliff and headland instability), Kiama Council routinely assesses development on coastal-hazard-affected land and will apply Chapter 2 of the Resilience and Hazards SEPP and the Coastal Management Act 2016 to such DAs. This circular is the guidance the council should follow to keep those assessments consistent, and it works together with PS 21-033 when the council issues section 10.7 planning certificates disclosing coastal hazards to landowners and buyers.
“This circular provides guidance on assessment of coastal hazards under Chapter 2: Coastal Management of State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021 and the Coastal Management Act 2016”
“Current planning system circulars provide point-in-time non‑statutory guidance to support the consistent application of planning principles, processes and practices across NSW.”
“This circular provides guidance on the disclosure of coastal hazards on planning certificates issued under section 10.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act).”
Reproduced from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (planning.nsw.gov.au), © State of New South Wales, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Text extraction may introduce minor formatting artefacts — rely on the official source for anything decision-critical.
This is an unofficial reproduction provided for convenience. It is not the official version of the legislation. For the official, in-force version, see legislation.nsw.gov.au.