Land Use Planning

The Land Use Planning Branch is responsible for identifying where land will be made available to accommodate population growth in the local government area over time, and for providing land use controls to ensure appropriate forms of development are achieved.  Council has adopted strategies to manage population growth and future release areas (including the Our Living City Settlement Strategy, Business Lands Strategy and Rural Residential Strategy).  Land use controls are provided in the form of adopted documents of Council including Local Environmental Plans, Development Control Plans, Developer Contributions Plans and Information Sheets.

Land Use Assessment

Coffs Harbour supports a range of land uses and the Land Use Assessment Section undertakes the assessment and determination of development applications for a range of development types including residential (3 or more dwellings), commercial, industrial and subdivision development. A development application must comply with the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979, relevant State Environmental Planning Policies, Council's Local Environmental Plan and relevant Development Control Plans. To facilitiate the application process, the land use assessment section also provides development related advice to developers, planning consultants, architects and the general public.