Cowra residents are being encouraged to talk directly with their neighbours about planned developments, with councillors warning new statewide planning rules could leave some people unaware of changes happening next door until work is already underway.

A new Statewide Community Participation Plan came into effect on 1 September, replacing Cowra Shire Council’s locally adopted 2024 plan and introducing standardised public exhibition requirements across NSW.

The State Government’s plan is intended to bring greater consistency to community consultation, reduce development application determination times and focus public participation on planning matters with greater complexity and potential impact.

However, one of the biggest changes for Cowra is that a range of developments previously subject to neighbour notification will no longer necessarily require formal public exhibition.

Deputy Mayor Nikki Kiss said while the intention of creating consistency across NSW and reducing assessment times was clear, she was concerned about what reduced notification could mean in a smaller community such as Cowra.

“Where development’s compliant and seen lower impact, there may be no communication at all with the community or consultation, and there are many of these incidences,” Cr Kiss said.

“I don’t know that that’s necessarily a positive thing for our community.

“I think in the small community that we have, people like to be kept informed, and I think there will be a few people that are not as happy ... when they realise something’s happened and they haven’t been consulted about it.”

Under Cowra’s previous Community Participation Plan, all new development applications were generally subject to neighbour notification unless specifically exempted.

The new statewide framework instead excludes a substantial list of development types from public exhibition where they meet the relevant requirements and do not require a variation to building height or floor space ratio.

The list includes dwelling houses of up to two storeys, dual occupancies of up to two storeys, secondary dwellings, attached dwellings of up to five homes and multi-dwelling housing of up to five homes.

Ancillary residential developments such as pools, sheds, pergolas and carports are also included, alongside farm buildings, rural workers’ dwellings, home businesses, roadside stalls, temporary structures and certain alterations and additions.

Some demolition, signage, tree removal and modifications to existing development consents can also be excluded, along with subdivisions resulting in no more than five new lots.

The new rules do not mean those developments escape assessment. Planning authorities must still assess applications on their merits and consider relevant matters such as privacy, overshadowing and heritage significance.

But where an application is not publicly exhibited, feedback received from members of the community is not treated as a formal submission.

Cr Kiss encouraged residents not to assume their neighbours would automatically receive official notification when they planned work.

“I’d like to take this opportunity in all seriousness to ask our residents to contact their neighbours just to be neighbourly, just to check in with them,” she said.

“Don’t just presume that if you’re doing something, the neighbours are going to be made aware of this.

“This plan does have the potential to cause some unnecessary tensions, and I think if we can avoid that at all costs, just keep the communication dialogue open.”

Cr Tony Horton shared concerns about the reduction in notification but stressed the statewide framework was not a decision Cowra councillors were being asked to make.

“We’re asked to note the commencement, we don’t have any say in it, really,” Cr Horton said.

“I would agree that, as a general principle, the reduction of any level of transparency is not a good thing for communities at any level.

“But we’re not being asked to provide input.

"We’re being asked to note.”

The plan was prepared by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure following statewide consultation.

Cowra Council was notified about the draft plan and proposed changes in May before receiving advice from the Department on August 27 that the revised plan had been adopted.

Cr Cheryl Downing said the commencement of the new framework meant there was little Council could do about the change.

“This came in on the first of September, so our previous plans are null and void," Cr Downing said.

"They’re revoked.

"They’re gone.

“So there’s nothing that we can do about that as a council.

"The State Government have made the decision.”

Cr Downing said she hoped the new framework ultimately achieved its objective of accelerating housing development.

“My only comment would be that we hope that this meets what the State Government wants it to do and builds houses and helps councils like ours get these things done more quickly, and that they supply the infrastructure that we need for the houses and the people that are working.”

Cr Erin Watt said councillors supported housing development but believed development and community consultation did not have to be competing objectives.

“I think it’s really important that we put forward that we are very supportive of that development,” Cr Watt said.

“We just want it to happen in a way that, as Councillor Kiss said, is neighbourly and fits with our community.”

Cr Watt was particularly concerned about differences between the version of the statewide plan placed on public exhibition and the final framework.

She said Cowra had previously operated on the principle that developments complying with established local planning controls should be able to progress relatively quickly, while proposals seeking something outside those controls warranted greater community awareness.

“If you’re compliant with the DCP, if you’re compliant with the local planning structures, you can move forward quickly in your development,” Cr Watt said.

“But if you’re asking for something that is different than the plan that was endorsed by your elected members, endorsed by your community, you should need to ask some more.

“You should need to tell your neighbours what’s going on, and they should have a right to put forward their opinion on it because it does affect you what’s happening next door to you.”

Cr Watt said submissions did not automatically result in an application being rejected or changed, but instead provided another piece of information for consideration during the assessment process.

“Just because a complaint comes through doesn’t mean that that’s going to change council’s perception,” she said.

“It’s a piece of information in all of it, and we always have the balance of development versus how people feel about the current situations.”

She also raised concerns about placing greater responsibility on residents to continually monitor development applications themselves rather than being directly notified when relevant proposals arose.

Cr Watt said she hoped neighbours would continue communicating even where there was no formal requirement.

“Even if there isn’t a formal notification, take your time to talk to your neighbours about the developments that you’re hoping to do and figure out the best way,” she said.

Cr Peter Wright also expressed reservations about the changes, particularly the short period between Council being formally advised of the final plan and its commencement.

“They gave us a letter on the 27th ... and it started on the following Tuesday,” Cr Wright said.

He questioned several of the developments included among the public exhibition exclusions, including bed and breakfast accommodation and some changes of use, and described the overall changes as “very unsettling”.

Despite those concerns, the new framework retains formal consultation for a range of larger or potentially higher impact planning matters.

Local developments requiring exhibition generally have a minimum 14 day period, while council related development applications, designated development and several categories involving additional environmental considerations generally receive at least 28 days.

Draft Local Strategic Planning Statements and regional or district strategic plans are subject to minimum 60-day exhibitions, while structure, precinct and masterplans for urban renewal areas generally receive 42 days.

Planning proposals to amend or create a Local Environmental Plan generally receive at least 28 days, as do draft Development Control Plans and contribution plans.

Applications likely to generate significant public interest because of their location, nature or scale can also be exhibited for an extended period at the discretion of the consent authority.

Public exhibition periods are now calculated using calendar days, including weekends, although the period between 20 December and 10 January inclusive is excluded from the calculation.

Residents can also still provide feedback to a consent authority about applications which are not publicly exhibited.

However, under the statewide plan, that feedback does not have the status of a formal submission where no exhibition process applies.

For Cowra, the changes place greater importance on the Local Environmental Plan and Development Control Plan, with Council’s report expressing hope that strong local planning and design controls will help prevent developments from adversely affecting surrounding properties.

They could also make the simple act of talking over the fence increasingly important.

While councillors cannot reverse the statewide framework, their message to Cowra residents was clear: with official neighbour notification no longer guaranteed for some developments, keeping neighbours informed may increasingly fall to the people undertaking the development themselves.