A Better Policy on Granny Flats
If you think that acreage landowners should have the same rights as people on small house blocks to build a modest granny flat next to your house, then I’ve been fighting for you over this term of Council. At the moment, you can’t.
Even at our very last Council meeting for this term, we had a major breakthrough. I moved to send our very overdue, torturously argued-over new LEP (our main zoning and planning instrument) ‘to Gateway’ – lodging with the State Government for comment and approval.
Crucially, the new LEP recommends that our planning zones change to permit ‘Secondary Dwellings’ – that is, ‘Granny Flats’ of up to 25% of the size of the main house, on rural acreage blocks (and subject to other constraints like flood height, and using a ‘place-based’ approach).
This doesn’t mean that Granny Flats are permitted now. But it does mean that this Council has, at the last gasp, done what I pushed hard for it to do and include this reform in the LEP that may be adopted next year.
When it comes back from Gateway there will be full public consultation before final adoption.
The video I made on this subject a few months ago really touched a nerve, and became one of the most popular I’ve made on Council issues.
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