At its meeting of 28 November 2022, Council resolved to proceed with the planning proposal to insert floor space ratio and urban greening provisions into the Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014 and to approve the updated Draft Woollahra Development Control Plan 2015 (Amendment 21).

You can read the full Council resolution here.

The new planning controls came into effect on 14 July 2023.

The public exhibition ran from Wednesday 10 August 2022 to Friday 16 September 2022.

Thank you to everyone who made a submission on this planning proposal. Your participation is valuable in helping to shape Council's planning controls to ensure they reflect the views of the whole community.

You can still find everything you need to know about the exhibition on this page, including FAQs and links to important documents.

To stay up-to-date with Council’s consultations, please register for Your Say Woollahra.

Background

Woollahra Council exhibited draft controls for residential development. These include new floor space ratio development standards for low density residential development, and urban greening requirements for all residential development.

It is important that new residential development protects and enhances Woollahra's unique local character, including its low density neighbourhoods and generous tree canopy.

Accordingly, the proposed controls aim to ensure that new development is of an appropriate scale, retains and enhances tree canopy, and includes high quality landscaping.

These changes will only affect you if you submit a development application. Your development application will need to be consistent with the proposed controls.

The proposed controls are consistent with the views of our community as reflected in the Woollahra Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020 and the Community Strategic Plan: Woollahra 2030.

What controls are changing?

A planning proposal is a process used to amend a local environmental plan, which requires collaboration with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

Council has endorsed a planning proposal to amend the Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014 (LEP), which will apply to the whole LGA. Its objectives will be achieved by amending zone objectives, amending clauses 1.2 (Aims) and 4.4 (Floor Space Ratio), and adding Clause 6.8 (Urban Greening) to the LEP.

Council is also exhibiting changes to the Woollahra Development Control Plan 2015 (DCP). The DCP contains detailed built form controls that expand on the key requirements in the LEP. We are proposing to update Chapter B3 – General Development Controls and Chapter E3 – Tree Management.

Council is not designated as the local plan making authority for the LEP changes. This means that the NSW Minister for Planning and Homes (or delegate) is the authority responsible for implementing the proposed changes should Council resolve to support them after this public exhibition period.

One key change proposed is the replacement of the floorplate controls in the DCP with simpler floor space ratio (FSR) controls in the LEP. This will affect properties in both the R2 Low Density Residential and R3 Medium Density Residential zones where dwelling houses, semi-detached dwellings or dual occupancies are proposed. An FSR of 0.5:1 will apply, with a sliding scale of higher FSRs available to sites smaller than 400sqm. An area of Wolseley Road in Point Piper will also have a slightly higher FSR of 0.75:1, in recognition of the existing scale of development. The proposed FSRs will not apply to land in the Paddington, Watsons Bay and Woollahra Heritage Conservation Areas. Further information is provided in the project FAQs and the factsheet under the ‘Documents’ tab.

Properties in the R2 Low Density Residential and R3 Medium Density Residential zones will also be subject to new tree canopy and deep soil controls in the DCP. They will require between 25-35% of the site area to be covered by tree canopy, and 35% to comprise deep soil.

Other amendments, such as updated LEP aims and administrative changes to tree management controls will apply to the whole LGA.

You can check the zoning of your property here: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/spatialviewer/#/find-a-property/address

Make an online submission

CLOSED: This survey has concluded.