Council guide · NSW
Northern Beaches Council
What a house block can carry in Northern Beaches Council's area — the dual-occupancy minimums, the granny-flat rule and the C4 controls, read from the three LEPs the council still runs on legislation.nsw.gov.au, and whether the state Low and Mid-Rise rules reach here.
Warringah Local Environmental Plan 2011
Dual occupancy (two homes on one lot)
No frontage minimum in the LEP (cl 4.1B sets area only), and the LEP does not limit R2 to the attached form.
Secondary dwelling (granny flat)
Warringah LEP cl 5.4(9) — the greater of 60 m² or 11% 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; no dual occupancy; no secondary dwelling; no semi-detached pairs. The state Low and Mid-Rise rules do not apply in C4.
Manly Local Environmental Plan 2013
Dual occupancy (two homes on one lot)
Manly LEP sets no minimum lot size or frontage for a dual occupancy — permitted with consent in R2, judged on Council's DCP controls (site coverage, setbacks, open space, parking).
Secondary dwelling (granny flat)
Manly LEP cl 5.4(9) sets the size as the greater of 60 m² or 30% of the house’s floor area — not the 60 m² flat cap; cl 6.22 allows up to 75 m² where the flat sits entirely inside the existing house. 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; a secondary dwelling within existing dwelling only; semi-detached pairs are permitted. The state Low and Mid-Rise rules do not apply in C4.
Pittwater Local Environmental Plan 2014
Dual occupancy (two homes on one lot)
No frontage minimum in the LEP (cl 4.1B sets area only) — Council's DCP applies.
Secondary dwelling (granny flat)
Pittwater LEP cl 5.4(9) — the greater of 60 m² or 25% 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; no dual occupancy; a secondary dwelling is permitted; 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. Northern Beaches has no flood map on the Planning Portal, so flood is checked against Council's flood study by hand. 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 Northern Beaches Council through the NSW Planning Portal; weeks to months, neighbours notified, merit assessment against the LEP and DCP.
Useful links: northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au · NSW Planning Portal (lodge a DA or CDC, spatial viewer) · legislation.nsw.gov.au (search the LEP by name).
Enter the address — lot, frontage, zone, constraints and what it can carry, in about ten seconds.