Town planner in Inner West

Planning in Inner West

Most Inner West lots sit within heritage conservation areas, so alterations, additions and rear extensions are assessed for streetscape and character as much as for numerical controls.

Small lot sizes make dual occupancy and secondary dwelling eligibility a case-by-case question under the 2022 LEP.

The Sydenham to Bankstown corridor and the nominated centres under the low and mid-rise housing reforms affect Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield.

What we do for Inner West sites

• Statements of Environmental Effects for new houses, knock-down rebuilds, alterations, dual occupancies, secondary dwellings and townhouses, written to Inner West Local Environmental Plan 2022 and the former Marrickville, Leichhardt and Ashfield DCPs pending a consolidated Inner West DCP.
• Development due diligence reports before you buy: zoning, permissibility, yield, constraints and the approval pathway.
• Dual occupancy and duplex planning, including minimum lot size and frontage checks, CDC eligibility under the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code and Torrens subdivision advice.
• Granny flat planning where the site does not fit the Housing Code and a DA is needed.
• Townhouse and multi dwelling housing yield testing, DCP compliance and SEE reports.
• Subdivision, Clause 4.6 requests, DA or CDC advice and responses to council requests.

Suburbs we cover in Inner West

How a DA works in Inner West

Development applications are lodged through the NSW Planning Portal and assessed by the council against the LEP, the DCP and the section 4.15 matters in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Where a proposal meets every standard in the Codes SEPP it may instead be approved as complying development by a private certifier, which is faster but has no room for merit assessment. We check both pathways before recommending one.

A complete application is the single biggest thing an applicant controls. Our Statements of Environmental Effects address the LEP and DCP in the order the assessing officer reads them, with the sources shown, so requests for information are the exception rather than the rule.