City of Sydney Granted Expanded Planning Powers, Shifting CBD Development Control from State to Council

The NSW Government granted the City of Sydney an extensive exemption from state significant development (SSD) provisions in December 2024, meaning many developments in the central business district will no longer be classified as state-level projects and will instead be assessed by the City of Sydney Council. The change applies to developments within the City of Sydney local government area, including the CBD, and effectively returns significant planning authority to the council after years of state oversight.

What the exemption means for CBD planning

Under the previous system, larger developments were often designated as state significant development and assessed by the Independent Planning Commission or the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. The updated Sydney planning policy explicitly excludes these CBD developments from the SSD designation, allowing the City of Sydney Council to continue assessing them under its local planning framework. The exemption covers a broad range of projects that would previously have triggered state-level assessment, giving the council the final say on height, floor space, and design standards within the existing tower clusters mapped in the Central Sydney Planning Strategy.

Impact on residents and community

For Sydney CBD residents, the practical effect is that local councils, not state panels, will decide the scale and character of new buildings, public plazas, and streetscape changes. The Central Sydney Planning Strategy establishes four mapped tower clusters within the CBD, concentrating taller buildings in specific precincts while protecting lower-scale areas. Because the council now has direct control over most development applications, residents and community groups can make submissions directly to the City of Sydney rather than to state bodies, potentially making the process more locally responsive. The policy shift also means the council can negotiate public benefits, such as affordable housing contributions, public open space, and transport upgrades, as part of the assessment process.

The City of Sydney's development application search tool lists hundreds of active applications across the LGA, which residents can access to track projects and lodge comments. Community input at the council level may carry more weight now that state-level panels have been largely removed from the equation for CBD projects.

What comes next

The exemption took effect in December 2024, and the first batch of developments now being assessed under the new framework includes a mix of residential towers, commercial redevelopments, and hotel projects. While the exact number of applications since the change is not yet publicly tallied, planning alerts published by the City of Sydney show a steady stream of new applications. The council has indicated it will apply its existing planning controls, including the Central Sydney Planning Strategy, which was designed to manage growth within agreed height and density benchmarks. Developers and local businesses will need to engage directly with the council rather than the state when seeking approvals for major projects in the CBD, making the relationship between the City of Sydney and the local community more central to the future shape of the area.