Housing Diversity Development Control Plan

A DCP is a document that provides detailed guidelines and standards for development including landscaping, building setbacks and parking requirements. It supports the Lake Macquarie Local Environment Plan and must be consistent with it’s controls.

The proposed amendments to the DCP, are summarised below:

• Controls have been revised to permit secondary dwellings, multi dwelling housing and residential flat buildings on battle-axe lots, consistent with the LMLEP 2014.
• Small lot housing (lots between 200 m² or 250m² to 450m²) is now permitted across the whole local government area, consistent with the LMLEP 2014
• The requirement for residential parking spaces to be covered has been removed. There is no change to the number of car parking spaces required
• Minimum lot size requirements for various land use types have been removed, as they already exist in the LMLEP 2014
• Minimum lot width requirements have been removed to provide greater design flexibility. Other existing development controls relating to solar access, privacy and waste service provisions will ensure amenity considerations are still achieved.
• Additional side setback and landscaping requirements for multi dwelling housing and residential flat buildings adjacent to R2 Low Density Residential zones have been removed. These land uses are now permissible in the R2 Low Density Residential zone, making the previous requirements redundant
• The requirement to plant one tree per lot for multi dwelling housing has been extended to attached dwellings, dual occupancies and development on small and narrow lots

In February 2025, Council endorsed the Housing Diversity Planning Proposal to facilitate greater housing diversity in Lake Macquarie. The planning proposal amended the Lake Macquarie Local Environment Plan (LMLEP) 2014 to allow:

• a broader range of housing types in the R2 Low Density Residential zone and R3 Medium Density Residential zone
• greater flexibility to subdivide small lots down to 200m² in R3 and 250m² in R2 for a variety of land uses.
   

Since endorsing the planning proposal, Council also hosted the Lake Macquarie Housing Forum. Two actions arising from the Housing Forum Action Plan, endorsed by Council on 30 June 2025, are addressed through this DCP review:

• Housing Forum Action 1.1 Change planning controls to facilitate more diverse housing options. For example, review land uses, minimum building heights, zoning and density controls
• Housing Forum Action 1.2 Change planning controls to align with and build upon the State Government’s Transport Orientated Development (TOD) program and Low and Mid-rise housing reforms.

The proposed DCP amendments respond to these directions and ensure the DCP is consistent with the Housing Diversity Planning Proposal.

Submissions must be made in writing and received by Monday 24 November 2025. 

You can choose to: 

provide written feedback via the online submission form on this website 

email [email protected] with the subject heading ‘DCP Amendments’ 

write to Lake Macquarie City Council Attn: Integrated Planning, Box 1906, Hunter Region Mail Centre, NSW, 2310. 

Your submission can be as concise or as long as you wish. Ideally, you will express your level of support for the proposal and provide detailed and specific feedback. The feedback will be reviewed by staff and later presented to Council to make an informed decision. 

Should multiple submissions be received from a single resident regarding this project, the feedback will be reviewed by staff and counted as one submission when reporting back to Council. If you have made a reportable political donation or gift in the last two years your submission must be accompanied by a "Disclosure Statement of Political Donations and Gifts where Council is Approval Authority - Submitters" Form.  For more information on reportable political donations or gifts, or to download a copy of this form go to lakemac.com.au  and search for "Political Donations Submitters". Please note failure to complete a statement, if a Political Donation/Gift has been made, is an offence under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. 

Feedback may result in further changes being made to the DCP prior to a report being prepared for Council. 

You will be notified again, prior to Council considering the matter, which will include a link to the Council report containing a summary of submissions and how feedback was considered.