Council guide · NSW

Hawkesbury City Council

What a house block can carry in Hawkesbury City Council's area — the dual-occupancy minimums, the granny-flat rule and the C4 controls, read from the Hawkesbury Local Environmental Plan 2012 on legislation.nsw.gov.au, and whether the state Low and Mid-Rise rules reach here.

not in R2dual occupancy under the LEP

state ruleinside the Low and Mid-Rise area

60 m² or 10%granny flat (the greater)

Dual occupancy (two homes on one lot)

Dual occupancies are not in the R2 land-use table of the Hawkesbury LEP, so outside the state Low and Mid-Rise catchment they are not permitted; inside it the state 450 m² / 12 m rule applies.

Secondary dwelling (granny flat)

Hawkesbury LEP cl 5.4(9) — the greater of 60 m² or 10% of the house’s total floor area, parking excluded. Under the state Housing SEPP a granny flat of up to 60 m² can also go through the ten-day complying-development route on a lot of 450 m² or more, with a 12 m frontage, where the land is not flood, bushfire or heritage constrained.

C4 Environmental Living

In the C4 Environmental Living zone: a house is permitted; an attached dual occupancy is permitted; no secondary dwelling; no semi-detached pairs. The state Low and Mid-Rise rules do not apply in C4.

Low and Mid-Rise

Inside the state Low and Mid-Rise area — within about an 800 m walk of a listed town centre or station — the Housing SEPP overrides the LEP minimums above: a dual occupancy on 450 m² with a 12 m frontage, terraces on 500 m² / 18 m, townhouses on 600 m² / 12 m and a manor house on 500 m² / 12 m, up to 9.5 m high. Block Checker reads the centre layer on the Planning Portal and tells you which side of the line your lot sits. Bushfire-prone, flood-control and heritage land is carved out and falls back to the LEP.

Constraints that change the answer

Bushfire-prone land (RFS map), flood-control lots, heritage items and conservation areas, and landslip risk all take a lot out of the fast-track routes and into a full DA. Easements, covenants and sewer mains are not on the public maps — a title search and a Sydney Water or council water check are always needed.

Approval routes

Complying development (CDC) — a private certifier issues it in days where the design meets every state standard; no neighbour notification.
Pattern Book — the NSW pre-approved designs, ten-day approval, subject to survey (slope) and the site tests.
Development application (DA) — lodged with Hawkesbury City Council through the NSW Planning Portal; weeks to months, neighbours notified, merit assessment against the LEP and DCP.

Useful links: hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au · NSW Planning Portal (lodge a DA or CDC, spatial viewer) · legislation.nsw.gov.au (search the LEP by name).

A residential street in Hawkesbury City Council's area — **Suburbs** — Berambing, Bilpin, **Blaxlands Ridge**, Bligh Park, Bowen Mountain, Bucketty, Central Colo, **Central Macdonald**, Clarendon, Colo, Colo Heights, **Cornwallis**, Cumberland Reach, **East Kurrajong**, **Ebenezer**, Fernances, Freemans Reach, Glossodia, **Grose Vale**, **Grose Wold**, Higher Macdonald, Hobartville, **Kurmond**, **Kurrajong**, **Kurrajong Heights**, **Kurrajong Hills**, Lower Macdonald, Lower Portland, Mcgraths Hill, Mellong, Mogo Creek, Mountain Lagoon, **Mulgrave**, North Richmond, **Oakville**, Perrys Crossing, **Pitt Town**, **Pitt Town Bottoms**, Putty, Richmond, **Richmond Lowlands**, **Sackville**, Scheyville, South Windsor, St Albans, Ten Mile Hollow, **Tennyson**, The Devils Wilderness, The Slopes, Upper Colo, Upper Macdonald, Vineyard, Webbs Creek, Wheeny Creek, Wilberforce, Windsor, **Windsor Downs**, Womerah, Wrights Creek, Yarramundi.