Code Amendment ID: 10108 Site Contamination Development Assessment Scheme

The State Planning Commission proposes to review the scope of the Site Contamination Development Assessment Scheme to improve the way the planning system responds to site contamination risk, ensuring that investigations are commensurate to the level of risk.

This code amendment proposes to review the extent of developments which are captured by the term “more sensitive use’ in the Site Contamination General Development Policies. Review of State Planning Commission Practice Direction 14 – Site Contamination Assessment 2021 will be undertaken concurrently.

Instead of the term ‘more sensitive use’ and the Land Use Sensitivity Hierarchy in Practice Direction 14, it is proposed to investigate a scheme where site contamination investigations are required for changes to particular land uses most susceptible to site contamination (e.g. through exposure pathways), but only where those uses are located on potentially contaminated land.