What’s in a name?
Environment or Conservation?
The NSW Government is renaming the ‘environment zones’ to ‘conservation zones’ under clause 2.1 Land use zones of the Standard Instrument – Principal Local Environmental Plans. The new conservation zones will be:
- Zone C1 – National Parks and Nature Reserves
- Zone C2 – Environmental Conservation
- Zone C3 – Environmental Management
- Zone C4 – Environmental Living
Commencing on 1 December 2021, the change will be given effect through the Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Amendment (Land Use Zones) Order 2021. Councils will not need to update their local environmental plans to reflect the new zone names. This change is purely administrative only. Only the name of zones is changing. The objectives and land use tables remain the same across all zones.
Employment or Business or Industrial?
On 1 December 2021 the existing Business (B) and Industrial (IN) zones will also change. These will be replaced with:
- five new employment zones
- three supporting zones
This introduces the new employment zones alongside the existing business and industrial zones. It will also enable implementation into individual local environmental plans to begin. This also allows employment zones to be introduced after references to environment zones are updated. This will reduce the risk of misinterpretation where environment zones are currently referred to by just the E prefix in environmental planning instruments.
What Councils need to do next?
There is no need for councils to do anything in relation to the new conservation zone names.
However, in relation to the new employment zones councils will now need to consider the proposed zone translation detail for existing business and industrial zones. The translation detail will soon be issued by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. Councils will need to review, confirm and return these details to the Department to enable the next steps in implementation to occur. The translation detail is supported by a toolkit and implementation plan to guide councils during the transition process. The Department will also provide a community guide explaining the changes to employment zones. For more information about how these changes impact your council, contact:
