A new planning policy for coastal management starts in New South Wales.

NSW Department Planning and Environment press release:

The State Environmental Planning Policy (Coastal Management) 2018 commences on 3 April 2018 and guides development in coastal areas, including land adjacent to beaches, estuaries, coastal lakes, coastal wetlands and littoral rainforests.

It promotes appropriate and sensitive development in our coastal areas, recognising they are some of the most socially, environmentally and economically valuable lands in NSW.

The Coastal Management SEPP:

Continues strong protections for our coastal wetlands and littoral rainforests
Encourages appropriate development in environmentally sensitive areas such as near coastal lakes and waterways
Enshrines and promotes public access, use and enjoyment of our beaches and foreshore areas
Advocates good design outcomes in coastal areas
Promotes development that minimises risk to human life and property in areas subject to coastal hazards.

It also streamlines and enhances previous coastal planning policies into one integrated policy and is accompanied with more accurate and easier to use mapping of the coastal zone.

The new SEPP replaces three environmental planning instruments: SEPP 14 (Coastal Wetlands), SEPP 26 (Littoral Rainforests) and SEPP 71 (Coastal Protection), including clause 5.5 of the Standard Instrument – Principal Local Environmental Plan.

Accessing the new planning policy and maps

The Coastal Management SEPP is now available on the NSW legislation website.

An accompanying interactive spatial map viewer can be accessed via the Department of Planning and Environment website. You may experience some delay in downloading all the map layers if a large number of people are accessing them at the same time.

Maps can be printed directly from the viewer.

Finding out more

If you would like to know more about the coastal management SEPP and associated maps, please:

Coastal reform program

The Coastal Management SEPP is an integral part of the NSW Government’s strategic coastal reform program.

The Office of Environment and Heritage is responsible for the Coastal Management Act 2016, coastal management programs and grant funding under the Coastal and Estuary Grants Program.

To find out more, please visit Coastal management at the OEH website.