Council guide · NSW
Port Stephens Council
What a house block can carry in Port Stephens Council's area — the dual-occupancy minimums, the granny-flat rule and the C4 controls, read from the Port Stephens Local Environmental Plan 2013 on legislation.nsw.gov.au, and whether the state Low and Mid-Rise rules reach here.
Dual occupancy (two homes on one lot)
Cl 4.1B — attached dual occupancy 500 m² (detached 600 m²) in R1 and R2, 450 m² (detached 500 m²) in R3; no LEP frontage minimum (Council's DCP applies). cl 4.1C lets the pair be split onto two lots of 250 m² or more, one home on each.
Secondary dwelling (granny flat)
Port Stephens LEP cl 5.4(9) — the greater of 60 m² or 40% 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; a 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 Port Stephens Council through the NSW Planning Portal; weeks to months, neighbours notified, merit assessment against the LEP and DCP.
Useful links: portstephens.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.