New State Strategic Plan for Crown land in NSW

Crown Lands has released a draft State Strategic Plan for managing and using Crown land in NSW for public comment.

Snapshot

• The draft State Strategic Plan – A Vision for Crown Plan (Plan) sets out a strategy for managing and using Crown lands for the next 10 years and is open for public comment until 20 August 2020.
• It establishes four priorities, being to enable jobs and growth in regional/rural NSW, expand green space and build climate change resilience, strengthen community connections and work with Indigenous communities.
• Notably, the draft Plan identifies that Crown land in regional areas may be used to support energy projects, including solar and wind generation and the development of hydrogen assets.

Background

Approximately 42 per cent of land in NSW is Crown land. It is managed by Crown Lands (part of the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment) pursuant to the Crown Land Management Act 2016 (NSW).

Crown Lands developed the draft Plan to:

• promote the use of Crown land to create environmental, economic and social benefits for NSW;
• address community needs and possible impacts presented by climate change; and
• address delays and obstacles to recognition of Aboriginal rights to Crown land, as well as to other uses of Crown land.

Priorities for Crown land in NSW

The draft Plan establishes four priorities for the next 10 years. The key aspects of each priority are summarised below:

1. Enabling jobs and growth and sustainable economic progress in regional and rural NSW

Crown Lands will seek opportunities to make Crown land available for wind and solar projects, as identified in the NSW Primary Industries Climate Change Research Strategy. This may also include utilising Crown land for hydrogen projects identified in the Commonwealth Hydrogen Strategy. It will also aim to expeditiously attend to requests in relation to Crown land when processing infrastructure approvals. The draft Plan aims to facilitate investment on Crown land by increasing security of tenure for Crown land leaseholders.

2. Expanding green space, sustainable quality of life and climate change resilience

Crown land managers will work with Councils and others to better utilise Crown land to provide greater access to green space, particularly in urban areas. Crown Lands will publish maps and provide greater access to information to encourage managers and the public to identify how Crown land can be used.

3. Strengthening and supporting evolving community connections

Crown Lands will support commercial and community operations, in particular for show grounds and ‘multi-use’ sites such as community gardens and farmer’s markets. Crown Lands will explore ways for managers of community-based facilities on Crown land to access funding to install roof-top solar.

4. Working with Aboriginal communities to realise the potential of their land rights

Crown Lands will prioritise Aboriginal land transfers and explore co-management opportunities for suitable sites.

Other measures

The draft Plan also identifies a number of initiatives intended to support the delivery of the priorities listed above. These include:

• standardising leases and licensing for common activities;
• making land available for wind and solar generation; and
• expanding support to Crown land managers.

The above initiatives are identified as short-term outcomes under the draft Plan. In particular, it will be interesting to see how Crown Lands will identify potential Crown land for renewables projects.

Further, Crown Lands expects to reduce the red tape for government entities who manage Crown land in the medium-term, including updating licensing requirements to permit common, low-risk improvement activities on Crown land to be carried out in a more efficient manner.

Next steps

The draft Plan is open for consultation until 20 August 2020.

Following consultation, Crown Lands will prepare a summary report of public comments and adopt a final version of the Plan.

The final version will include more detailed timelines and implementation plans to support short, medium and long-term outcomes across the 10 year duration of the Plan.

More information on the Plan can be found here.

By Peter Briggs, Partner, Tom Dougherty, Senior Associate, and Brigitte Rheinberger, Solicitor.

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