Planning approvals for warehouses and data centres will be assessed under a new accelerated pathway to help stimulate NSW’s post-pandemic economic recovery.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Rob Stokes, said the NSW Government has seized upon the opportunity to quicken the approval processes for warehouses and data storage facilities by lowering the threshold for them to be assessed as State Significant Development (SSD).
For the next two years, the threshold for warehouses to be assessed as SSD will be lowered from $50 million to $30 million.
“During the pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift closer towards e-commerce, remote working and cloud storage which has led to an increase in data centres and warehouses,” Minister Stokes shared.
“These are great for stimulating the economy – they’re simple to build, simple to assess and create a high number of direct and indirect jobs.”
“Data centres and warehouses represent a $4.9 billion pipeline of projects so by lowering the threshold to assess more of them as State Significant Development, we are pushing them through the planning system more quickly,” he said.
In addition to changing the threshold, Minister Stokes said the number of planning assessment officers would be boosted to help manage the demand. The State Government also announced last week that smaller data centres could now be set up as complying development, subject to strict conditions.
“This means we’re making it easier to build small-scale data centres without lengthy planning approvals while providing a swifter pathway for large scale ones,” Minister Stokes commented.
The changes to the SSD assessment pathway form a part of the NSW Government’s Planning Reform Action Plan announced last year. They will be in effect until 31 May 2023.
For more information visit the warehouses and data centres web page.