Meriton Apartments Pty Ltd v Council of the City of Sydney

Meriton Apartments Pty Ltd appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against orders made by Pain J, which in turn upheld an earlier decision of Senior Commissioner Moore of the Land and Environment Court. The dispute concerned the ability of the Council of the City of Sydney to amend a monetary condition imposed on a development consent, specifically relating to contributions for public amenities and services. Meriton argued that the condition, as amended by the Council, was unreasonable in the circumstances.

The central legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the Senior Commissioner erred in his interpretation of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) concerning the calculation of contributions under section 94. Specifically, the court had to determine whether the rateability of the relevant land was a relevant consideration for assessing the net demand for public amenities and services generated by the development. Furthermore, the court considered whether the net demand for public amenities was dependent on whether the previous landowner had paid rates at any time.

The Court of Appeal found that the Senior Commissioner had incorrectly discounted the credit Meriton was entitled to for past workforce contributions. The court reasoned that the rateability of the land and past rate payments by previous landowners were irrelevant to the calculation of the net demand for public amenities and services generated by the current development. The court held that the purpose of section 94 was to ensure that new developments contributed to the cost of providing public amenities and services necessitated by that development, and this calculation should not be influenced by historical rate payments.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal, allowed the appeal, and set aside the previous orders. The court ordered that the development consent be modified to include a credit of $467,462.28 for past workforce contributions. The Council of the City of Sydney was ordered to pay Meriton's costs of the proceedings.