New South Wales planning controls
Every principal LEP in the state is made from the same template, so the clause numbers below mean the same thing in every council area even though the figures they carry do not. The zone tells you what you may build. Three separate maps tell you how much.
How a NSW control set fits together
Almost always the council's principal LEP, made on the Standard Instrument template. A State Environmental Planning Policy can sit over it and, where the two conflict, generally prevails — which is how the housing SEPPs permit things a council's own LEP does not.
The zone on the Land Zoning Map is an index into a table of four items: objectives, permitted without consent, permitted with consent, prohibited. That table is the control. The zone letter is not.
Height of buildings, floor space ratio and minimum lot size, each with its own clause and its own map. They are set independently, so a generous height can sit over a restrictive floor space ratio on the same parcel.
Heritage, flood, foreshore and the rest sit in Part 5 and are triggered by their own maps. Bush fire prone land is not in the LEP at all — it comes from the Act, and it can change what kind of application you are lodging.
Zoning
What you may build, and the one control on this page that answers a question about use rather than about size.
| Control | What it is | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Zoning | Land Use ZonesA NSW zone answers what you may build, never how big. The Land Use Table is the control; the zone letter is only its index. | Clause 2.3 |
Principal development standards
The three mapped numbers in Part 4 of the LEP. Between them they set the yield of a site, and each can be contravened under clause 4.6 independently of the other two.
| Control | What it is | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| HOB | Height of BuildingsA single mapped figure in metres, measured from existing ground level — and a definition that decides whether your lift overrun counts. | Clause 4.3 |
| FSR | Floor Space RatioThe control that sets yield directly. Everything turns on the definition of gross floor area, not on the ratio. | Clause 4.4 |
| MLS | Minimum Lot SizeA subdivision control that is also, through the Land Use Table and the housing codes, a dwelling-yield control. | Clause 4.1 |
Constraints
Controls that do not set a size but can change what is buildable, what must be assessed, and — in the case of bush fire — what kind of consent you are applying for.
| Control | What it is | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| HCA | Heritage ConservationAn item and a conservation area are different controls with the same clause number, and complying development treats them differently. | Clause 5.10 |
| FPL | Flood PlanningNot a prohibition — a set of matters the consent authority must be satisfied of, keyed to a level the LEP does not print. | Clause 5.21 |
| BPL | Bush Fire Prone LandThe one control on this list that is not in the LEP at all, and the one that can turn a development application into integrated development. | EP&A Act s10.3 |
Clause 4.6, and why a NSW standard is neither a ceiling nor a suggestion
A Victorian residential standard is mostly discretionary: exceeding it is a merits argument about the standard’s objective, made in the ordinary course of the application. New South Wales does it differently. A development standard — a height, a floor space ratio, a minimum lot size — is a standard the consent authority may only depart from through clause 4.6, and that clause has a written test of its own.
The applicant lodges a written request with the application (the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021, section 35B, requires it). Under clause 4.6(3) the consent authority must be satisfied that the applicant has demonstrated two things: that compliance with the standard is unreasonable or unnecessary in the circumstances of the case, and that there are sufficient environmental planning grounds to justify contravening it. The consent authority must keep a record of its assessment (clause 4.6(4)). Since 1 November 2023 the clause no longer asks the consent authority to be satisfied that the development is in the public interest because it is consistent with the objectives of the standard and the zone, and the Planning Secretary’s concurrence requirement has gone. Development applications lodged before that date were assessed under the earlier wording.
Two practical consequences for a feasibility. First, a clause 4.6 request is a document somebody has to write and a decision somebody has to make, so a scheme that depends on one is carrying assessment risk and time the compliant version is not. Second, the mechanism is not universally available, and the limits are in the clause itself.
What clause 4.6 cannot vary. Clause 4.6(8) says the clause does not allow consent to be granted for development that would contravene (a) a development standard for complying development, (b) a development standard that arises under the regulations in connection with a commitment in a BASIX certificate, (c) clause 5.4 or (d) clause 5.5, and an LEP can add further exclusions of its own. Clause 4.6(6) bars consent under the clause for a subdivision in Zone RU1, RU2, RU3, RU4, RU6, R5, C2, C3 or C4 that would leave two or more lots below the minimum lot size, or any lot below 90 per cent of it. Clause 5.3(5) (development near zone boundaries) is not a development standard that clause 4.6 can vary, so non-compliance means refusal. The practical result: the numbers in the Housing Code and Low Rise Housing Diversity Code columns of the Land Axis checklist are complying development standards and cannot be varied under clause 4.6. A variation is a route for a development application only.
Source: NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Guide to Varying Development Standards (November 2023), section 2.1, which reproduces clause 4.6 as it now reads, and section 6.2.1 on clause 5.3. Check the date on any other clause 4.6 guidance before relying on its wording. Clause 4.6 applies to development applications and not to building information certificate applications.