Groves v Lake Macquarie City Council [2018] NSWLEC 1211

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Groves v Lake Macquarie City Council [2018] NSWLEC 1211 Hearing dates: Conciliation conference on 4 April 2018 Date of orders: 01 May 2018 Decision date: 01 May 2018 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: O'Neill C Decision: See [4] below Catchwords: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION: conciliation conference; agreement between the parties; orders Legislation Cited: Land and Environment Court Act 1979 Category: Principal judgment Parties: David James Groves (Applicant) Lake Macquarie City Council (Respondent) Representation: Solicitor: T Pickup, Local Government Legal (Applicant) C Doyle, McDonald Johnson Lawyers (Respondent) File Number(s): 2017/370953 Publication restriction: No

Judgment 1. COMMISSIONER: In this matter, at or after a conciliation conference, an agreement under s 34(3) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (the Court Act) was reached between the parties as to the terms of a decision in the proceedings that was acceptable to the parties. As the presiding Commissioner, I was satisfied that the decision was one that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions (this being the test applied by s 34(3) of the Court Act). As a consequence, s 34(3)(a) of the Act required me to "dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the decision". 2. The Court Act also required me to "set out in writing the terms of the decision" (s 34(3)(b)). The orders made to give effect to the agreement constitute that document. 3. In making the orders to give effect to the agreement between the parties, I was not required to make, and have not made, any merit assessment of the issues that were originally in dispute between the parties. 4. The final orders to give effect to the parties' agreement under s34(3) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 are: 1. The appeal is upheld. 2. Development application DA 652/2017 seeking approval for a water recreation structure at 98 Government Road, Nords Wharf is approved subject to the conditions in Annexure A. ………………………. Susan O'Neill Commissioner of the Court Annexure A (169 KB, pdf)