AMT Planning Consultants Pty Ltd t/as Coastplan Consulting v Central Coast Council

AMT Planning Consultants Pty Ltd, trading as Coastplan Consulting, appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal against a decision concerning existing use rights for a caravan park. The dispute centred on whether the use of the land as a caravan park was limited to short-term accommodation, as stipulated by development consents granted in 1980 and early 1983, or if broader existing use rights applied. The Council contended that the use of the caravan park was prohibited from 5 May 1983, and that any existing use rights were confined to the terms of those consents.

The Court was required to determine whether the existing use rights as a caravan park were limited to short-term accommodation, and crucially, whether conditions attached to development consents could be taken into account when characterising the nature of an existing use. A further issue was whether a condition referencing the Council's Caravan Code had an ambulatory operation, meaning it could change over time with amendments to the Code.

The Court reasoned that the characterisation of an existing use must be informed by the terms of the development consents under which it was established. Therefore, conditions restricting the use to short-term accommodation were integral to defining the scope of the existing use rights. The Court held that the conditions did not have an ambulatory operation; they were fixed at the time the consents were granted and did not automatically incorporate subsequent amendments to the Council's Caravan Code. Consequently, the existing use rights were limited to short-term accommodation as per the original consents.

The appeal was dismissed, and the appellant was ordered to pay the respondent’s costs of the appeal.