All new developments on bush fire prone land in NSW are assessed against the requirements of Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2006 and Australian Standard 3959-2009 - Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas (AS3959).
As of 3 January 2012, Council officers will be completing this assessment as part of the development assessment process. The application will only be referred to the NSW Rural Fire Service for assessment in certain circumstances.
For further details on the information required to be submitted with a Development application for bushfire prone land, please refer to section 2.22 of the Development Application Preparation and Lodgement Guide (PDF, 779.2 KB).
Complying Development
The NSW Department of Planning (DoP) and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) have worked together to introduce a new system which allows complying development on some bush fire prone land (i.e. low risk bush fire prone land), but importantly maintains a rigorous assessment regime for managing bush fire risk.
A new certification process has been introduced whereby the risk of bus hfire is assessed by an application for a Bush fire Attack Level (BAL) Certificate. Once the BAL has been determined and the certificate has been issued, the applicant may proceed with applying for a Complying Development Certificate (Note - complying development is not allowed on high risk bush fire prone land - i.e. where the BAL is identified as 40 or Flame Zone).
Upon receiving an application for a Complying Development Certificate which is accompanied by the required BAL certificate, Council or the accredited certifier must then certify that the proposal complies with Australian Standard 3959-2009 - Construction of buildings in bush fire-prone areas (AS3959) and other applicable development standards.
Wagga Wagga City Council commenced the processing of BAL certificate applications in January 2012.
Documents
A suite of documents have been prepared to assist in the preparation of applications for development on bush fire prone land. These documents can be found below:
Bush Fire Prone Land Map
Bushfire Prone Land Map 11.6 MB Download
Forms
BAL Certificate Application Form 353.2 KB Download
Guides
Best Practice Guide to Bushfire Protection 153.1 KB Download
BAL Risk Assessment Guide 326.5 KB Download
Application Kit
BAL Risk Assessment Application Kit 683.0 KB Download
For further information please contact the Development Services Section of Council on 1300 292 442.
Interactive Map
Search for a property by clicking on the Bushfire Prone Land Online Map.