A key element of the reforms to the planning system commenced in WA more than a decade and a half ago was to ‘streamline and clarify existing provisions and processes to improve the efficiency of the approvals process’.[1] The introduction of the model...

The State Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) recently delivered a decision which had the somewhat unusual outcome that a provision of the Residential Design Codes Volume 1 (R-Codes) does not mean what it says. In Taylor and WAPC [2023] WASAT 16, the Tribunal was...

The provision of workforce accommodation for FIFO workers is a necessary part of the accommodation mix in many regional areas, however the incorporation of workforce accommodation into a community is a complex issue. Many regional local governments take the view that...

  From time to time local governments receive applications for development approval involving works on, or use of, common property in a strata scheme. Typically a local government would in those cases require the strata company to sign, or at least endorse, the...

The case of Dain Pty Ltd v Shire of Peppermint Grove [2019] WASC 264 (Dain) concerned a challenge to the inclusion of a property in the heritage list kept pursuant to the Shire’s local planning scheme. The challenge succeeded, based on apprehended bias arising from a...