The Northern Beaches Section 7.12 Contributions Plan (the Plan) applies to the whole of the Northern Beaches LGA, excluding the Warriewood Valley Release Area, Frenchs Forest Town Centre and Dee Why Town Centre.

The Plan applies a contribution based on the cost of the development (EPA Regulation 2021 - Clause 208), and the funds are used to deliver local infrastructure. The current Plan came into effect in 2022.

Due to recent legislative changes, we proposed amendments to the Plan, outlined in the 'The proposal' tab.

Council outcome

A report outlining the outcomes from engagement, including a copy of all submissions received and responses to main themes, was presented to Council at its meeting on Tuesday 15 October 2024, where Council adopted the amended Section 7.12 Contributions Plan. This repeals the plan adopted in 2022.

• View the Council Minutes (Item 12.2, p.13)
• View the adopted Section 7.12 Contributions Plan.

Consultation

We asked for your feedback on proposed amendments between 5 July and 18 August 2024 and received 7 submissions. Thank you to all who provided feedback.

Staff carefully considered all issues raised in submissions, and as many relate to matters not covered by the Plan, no changes were made to the Plan regarding these issues.

Some minor changes were made to the Plan since it was exhibited, including updating the list of infrastructure and their associated cost estimates to be funded by the Contributions Plan to reflect Council’s adopted Delivery Program 2024-28.

What are the proposed amendments?

Legislative changes:

• definition of Cost of development
• definition of a registered social and community housing provider.

Administrative changes:

• Census data (2021) released by Australian Bureau of Statistics in late 2022
• alignment with Council’s Delivery Program
• changes to appendices showing the Infrastructure Schedules/Delivered Infrastructure and location maps
• revisions to Section 2.5 listing the types of development that will not be required to pay contributions and are exempt from this plan
• increase in the cost threshold associated with the submission of a cost summary report to reduce overall application costs for developments
• clearly identify the circumstances when a refund is available
• setting the circumstances under which contributions already paid may be transferred and the contribution amount imposed on a development consent may be modified.

To make it easy for you to see exactly what we're changing, we have marked up the amendments in the draft Plan. A "clean" version of the draft plan is also available for your reference.