Lateral Planning has been working closely with the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage and Minister for Planning John Carey MLA on the review of the 2023 draft R-Codes. The 2023 draft R-Codes were deferred pending review to ensure that the R-Codes considered the current housing affordability issues.
After meetings with a number of key stakeholders, Lateral Planning made several recommendations of amendments which would minimise change to single houses in the R30 – R40 densities, retain much of the good design outcomes and flexibility proposed through the draft Codes, all while considering housing affordability.
Some of our recommendations included:
Relocating R30-40 Single House development standards back into Part B to reinstate 2021 standards.
Retaining R30-40 Grouped Dwelling development standards in Part C and retaining 2023 draft standards with the following modifications:
Not proceeding with the draft 2023 Part C standards for Single House and Grouped Dwelling development relating to:
Minimum bedroom room size and dimension;
Minimum primary living space size and dimension;
Minimum depth of single aspect primary living space; and
Courtyard proportions relative to adjoining wall height.
Retaining current 2021 open space standards in place of draft new Part C site cover standards for a period of 24 months.
Retaining Planning Bulletin 112/2016 R-MD provisions for R25 – R40.
The titles of Parts B and C will not refer to ‘Low’ or ‘Medium’ density.
Other changes to the draft Code intended to drive housing diversity include:
Maintain incentives for Small Dwellings and Accessible Dwellings in R30-60 coded areas;
Enable Ancillary Dwellings (granny flats) on grouped dwellings/strata lots (previously only applicable to Single House sites) in all codes; and
Remove the minimum 350m2 lot size.
The updated R-Codes will be released on 8 March 2024 and will become operational during the week commencing 8 April 2024. For more information contact us.
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