Town planner for Western Sydney

Planning in Western Sydney

Western Sydney is where most of our SEE and due diligence work sits: knock-down rebuilds and duplexes in the established suburbs, and new dwellings, granny flats and small subdivisions in the North West and South West Growth Areas.

The Western Sydney Airport and the Aerotropolis precincts bring their own SEPP provisions and aircraft noise mapping that affect residential development around Bringelly, Luddenham and Kemps Creek.

Growth area lots are often governed by the precinct plans in State Environmental Planning Policy (Precincts, Western Parkland City) 2021 and a Growth Centre DCP rather than the general council DCP; the two are frequently confused.

What we do for Western Sydney sites

• Statements of Environmental Effects for new houses, knock-down rebuilds, alterations, dual occupancies, secondary dwellings and townhouses, written to the LEPs of Blacktown, Penrith, Parramatta, Cumberland, The Hills, Liverpool, Fairfield, Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Hawkesbury and Wollondilly and each council's DCP and, in the growth areas, the Growth Centre Precinct DCPs.
• 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 Western Sydney

How a DA works in Western Sydney

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.