Land use and development are regulated by zones and development standards contained within a Council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP). Great Lakes is subject to the provisions of two current LEP documents:

• Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan 1996 covers the majority of the local government area.

•  Manning Local Environmental Plan No.1 covers only a small portion of land in north Tuncurry.

In accordance with the Department of Planning and Infrastructure's Planning Reform Program, Council has recently prepared Draft Great Lakes LEP 2012 to replace the two existing LEPs listed above. Draft LEP 2012 has been prepared using the Department's Standard Instrument Principal Local Environmental Plan. Wherever possible, the provisions of LEP 1996 and Manning LEP have been transitioned into Draft LEP 2012 using the Standard Instrument format.  Draft Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan 2012 was on public exhibition between 14 June and 24 August 2012. For further information regarding the Standard Instrument and the Planning Reform Program please contact Council's Strategic Planning Division on (02) 6591 7222. 

Planning Proposals and the Gateway Process

Council has several LEP amendments that are at various stages of completion and are being process through the Department of Planning's new Gateway Determination Process. The following information is from the Department of Planning website:

The gateway process has the following steps:

• Planning proposal - a planning proposal is a document that explains the intended effect of a proposed local environmental plan (LEP) and sets out the justification for making that plan.
• Gateway - The Minister (or delegate) determines whether the planning proposal is to proceed. This gateway acts as a checkpoint to ensure that the proposal is justified before further studies are done and resources are allocated to the preparation of a plan. A community consultation process is also determined at this time. Consultations occur with relevant public authorities and, if necessary, the proposal is varied.
• Community consultation - the proposal is publicly exhibited (generally low impact proposals for 14 days, others for 28 days). A person making a submission may also request a public hearing be held.
• Assessment - The relevant planning authority considers public submissions and the proposal is varied as necessary. Parliamentary Counsel then prepares a draft local environmental plan (LEP) - the legal instrument.
• Decision - With the Minister's (or delegate's) approval the plan becomes law and is published on the NSW legislation website.

Planning Proposals to Amend Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan 1996

The documents listed below include all proposed amendments to the Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 1996. These planning documents, which result in changes to zones and/or the development standards contained within the LEP, are either draft local environmental plan amendments or planning proposals:

• currently on exhibition
• already through the process of public exhibition, but not yet adopted by Council; or
• through public exhibition, adopted by Council, but not yet gazetted by the Minister of the Department of Planning.

It is recommended that prior to undertaking any development proposal, that you also review information that is currently On Exhibition