Planning and Environment
McLeods is proud to be home to Western Australia’s leading team of local government planning lawyers. Since the beginning we have been recognised for our expertise and forward-thinking approach to planning law and related areas such as environmental, heritage, compulsory land acquisition and compensation for injurious affection.
We have acted and advised in thousands of planning law cases for 40 years which means there is hardly a single issue of planning law or procedure that we are not familiar with.
Our team consists of some of the premier planning and development lawyers in Western Australia and every year, our planning lawyers provide assistance to local governments in hundreds of matters, spanning the entire range of the planning and development process.
Native Title
McLeods’ team of native title lawyers have been providing support to local governments and private clients in Native Title and Aboriginal Heritage matters for decades. We have been involved in large and small scale cases, and some of our senior team members are the leading native title and heritage lawyers in Western Australia.
McLeods has been involved in numerous large scale Native Title settlements since the first Native Title claims over the Perth metropolitan area in the mid 1990s, and our Native Title lawyers are currently acting for over twenty local governments in relation to the South West Settlements.
Our partner Peter Wittkuhn also acted for the Shires of Broome, Halls Creek, Derby-West Kimberly and Ngaanyatjarraku in native title litigation and Indigenous Land Use Agreement negotiation. Peter Wittkuhn acted in all stages of the Miriuwung Gajerrong proceedings on behalf of mining tenement holders, horticulturists and other private interest-holders, including in the High Court, in what remains one of the milestone cases in the Native Title field.
This extensive experience throughout Western Australia means McLeods is particularly well-equipped to assist local governments in Native Title cases, and we are familiar with the particularities and complexities associated with such cases.
Aboriginal Heritage
In addition to our substantial experience with Native Title settlements, the team at McLeods has complementary expertise in Aboriginal Heritage Law. We act principally for local governments throughout Western Australia, although we have acted on behalf of private interest-holders as well.
We understand that the management of Aboriginal Heritage issues requires unique negotiation skills and calls for heritage lawyers who can master the complex and novel demands of the field. We have a good working relationship with relevant representative bodies which enables us to competently aid our clients in Aboriginal Heritage negotiation and settlements.
Our specialties include:
Development and subdivision applications
We provide advice on matters such as:
- Validity of planning applications
- Whether applications are capable of approval
- Correct use class classification for development proposed by applications
- Applications involving non-conforming uses
- Dual applications under the Metropolitan Region Scheme and local planning schemes
- Whether modification to a proposed development requires a fresh planning application
- Unnecessary applications relating to development which is exempt from approval
- Advertising of planning applications
- Matters relevant to the determination of applications
- Grounds for refusing approval of development applications
- Deemed refusal of planning applications
Conditions of approval
- Validity of proposed conditions
- Whether conditions are a justifiable exercise of discretion in the circumstances
- Conditions limiting the duration of approval
- Conditions making approvals personal to an applicant
- Conditions requiring approval of subsequent matters
- Drafting & reviewing conditions for inclusion in approvals
- Representation & negotiation of planning conditions where applicants have challenged them in the SAT
- Conditions for developer contributions, and Contributor Agreements arising out of such conditions
Planning Litigation
Since the beginning of the SAT in 2005 we have represented local governments in hundreds of review proceedings in the Tribunal. In addition, we have provided representation in Supreme Court appeals from the decisions of the SAT and in challenges to the validity of planning decisions made by the local governments.
Reviewing and drafting planning documents
Heritage and Environment
Development Assessment Panels
Compulsory land acquisition
Key Personnel
David Nicholson
Managing Partner
Denis McLeod
Partner
Craig Slarke
Partner
Peter Wittkuhn
Partner
Ricardo Agostino
Lawyer