Amendment came into effect on 26 April 2023

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the NSW Department of Planning and Environments Employment zones reform involving changes to business and industrial zones. On Wednesday 26 April 2023, the reforms came into effect.

The related amendments have now been published on the NSW Legislation website and are available on the NSW Department of Planning and Environments Employment zones reform webpage.

Project information

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment made changes to business and industrial land use zones in all local environmental plans (LEPs) across New South Wales.

The reforms support long-term economic recovery through job creation and encourage increased productivity across the state.

What changed in Woollahra?

There were three former existing Business zones operating in the Woollahra local government area (LGA) which were affected by the reform:

  • B1 Neighbourhood Centre zone
  • B2 Local Centre zone
  • B4 Mixed Use zone

The main change for Woollahra was that the B1 Neighbourhood Centres and B2 Local Centres were consolidated under one new land use zone , E1 Local Centre (Figure 1).

The new E1 Local Centre and MU1 Mixed Use zones introduced new mandatory zone objectives and amended the uses that are permitted or prohibited in those former business zones. For Woollahra, the changes were generally minor in nature and do not affect the way that existing landowners and businesses use their land in the Woollahra LGA. In some instances, the reform may mean that additional uses are permitted in a certain zone.

The amendments to the Woollahra LEP 2014 can be viewed on the NSW Department of Planning and Environment's Employment zones reform webpage

How were these changes managed?

To ensure a smooth transition to the new employment zone framework, new local zone objectives and supporting provisions were introduced into the Woollahra LEP 2014 to complement the reform’s mandatory amendments.

The intent of the local provisions are to preserve the existing scale and amenity of our centres, while balancing their role to provide employment and business opportunities. This was achieved by making the following additional amendments to the Woollahra LEP 2014:

  1. Insert new local zone objectives for the E1 Local Centre and MU1 Mixed Use zones
  2. Strengthen the intent of our existing local zone objectives which will be carried across into the new E1 and MU1 zones
  3. Prohibit land uses that would be incompatible with the scale and function of our centres
  4. Insert a new Part 6 Additional local provision to clearly establish our centres hierarchy. This proposed provision will provide further considerations for development assessment for proposals in smaller centres zoned E1 Local centre. These considerations seek to support the character of the centre, the amenity of neighbouring residences and have regard to the role of the centre within the centres hierarchy established in the Woollahra Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020.


Find out more information

Visit the Department of Planning and Environment's Planning Portal and Employment Zones Reform webpage for general information on the reform.