No longer on display. Expired on
12 July 2022, 04:00 PM
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment is currently exhibiting the translation of existing Business and Industrial zones into the new ‘Employment’ zones. The exhibition is being held on the Department’s Planning Portal for 6 weeks from Tuesday 31 May 2022.
This is the implementation stage of a reform that replaces Business and Industrial zones with Employment zones within individual local environmental plans (LEP) across NSW.
An employment zone is a zone in which the primary objective is to promote employment-generating activities.
The Department of Planning and Environment has worked closely with Murray River Council to ensure LEPs are amended, consistent with the intent of the reform, while also ensuring the land-use planning outcomes are locally appropriate.
How does this affect us?
For Murray River, the project is largely new zone names for current business and industrial zones with not a lot of fundamental changes in respect to the land use tables. However some areas, such as Business Parks, may have additional uses permitted.
There will also be some work undertaken on what will be permissible in the new Meninya St precinct to strengthen its role as a commercial hub, in line with the Action 2.6 of our Local Strategic Planning Statement.
In general, what we will see will be:
- B2 Local Centre (in Barham) will become E1 Local Centre
- B6 Enterprise Corridor (Barham and Moama) will become E3 Productivity Support
- IN1 General Industrial (Barham, Murray Downs and Moama) will become E4 General Industrial
- B2 Local Centre (Moama) will become E2 Commercial Centre
It’s important to note that these changes will not affect existing business within our employment zones. If you are thinking about making changes to the way you operate your existing business after these changes come into force, please feel free to have a chat with Council’s duty planners.
View the changes
To view the detail of the exhibition and make a submission please visit the Department’s Planning Portal and Employment Zones Reform webpage for general information on the reform process.
The Department have also launched a searchable web tool, which enables you to look up the proposed zoning changes for individual sites.
You can search your property here: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/employment-zones-address
The Department have also created a Frequently Asked Questions page on the Employment Zones Reform to assist during the exhibition period.
If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Planning and Environment on 1300 420 596 or by email at employment.zones@planning.nsw.gov.au
What’s next?
After the exhibition period, the Department will be working with Murray River Council to finalise implementation ahead of the new zones coming into force on 1 December 2022.