Town planner in Wollongong

Planning in Wollongong

Wollongong sites are shaped by the escarpment: slope, landslip risk mapping, bushfire and flood on the coastal plain, and the coastal zone along the beaches.

Dual occupancies and secondary dwellings are common on the older lots from Corrimal to Dapto, and the DCP has a detailed chapter for each.

West Dapto is the major release area with its own precinct plans and DCP chapter.

What we do for Wollongong sites

• Statements of Environmental Effects for new houses, knock-down rebuilds, alterations, dual occupancies, secondary dwellings and townhouses, written to Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 and Wollongong Development Control Plan 2009.
• 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 Wollongong

How a DA works in Wollongong

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.