Reference Data · New South Wales
Sutherland Shire DCP: the dwelling controls, as published.
5 controls for low-density residential — dwelling houses, taken from Sutherland Shire Development Control Plan 2015, Chapter 2 Dwelling Houses — Part c: Dwelling Houses in the R2 Low Density Residential Zone (May 2026 version). As at 2026-08-29.
NSW has no statewide dwelling setback or site-coverage standard. The LEP sets zone, height and FSR; the numbers that shape a build sit in each council's DCP — here, the 5 that Sutherland Shire publishes numerically. Anything its DCP assesses on merit rather than a fixed number is absent from this table: not a zero, and not a permission.
Sutherland Shire — published dwelling controls
| Control | Published value | Qualifier |
|---|---|---|
| Front setback | 7.5 m | 7.5m to the primary (narrowest) street frontage; except where adjoining dwellings are setback greater or less than 7.5m, in which case the established street setback applies (average setback of the nearest dwelling houses having the same primary road boundary and located within 40m of the lot; where the difference between those setbacks is <=2.0m the greater or lesser may be applied). Front setback for an internal lot is 4.0m. |
| Secondary street setback | 3 m | — |
| Side setback | 0.9 m | — |
| Rear setback | 6 m | — |
| Private open space | 36 m² | — |
Source: Sutherland Shire Development Control Plan 2015, Chapter 2 Dwelling Houses — Part c: Dwelling Houses in the R2 Low Density Residential Zone (May 2026 version). Clauses: Part c, cl. 2.2 Building Setbacks (Table 1: Setbacks); cl. 4.2 Landscaping (control 1); cl. 5.2 Building Layout, Private Open Space and Solar Access (control 3); cl. 1.2 Streetscape and Building Form (height). Open the source DCP.
Scope: R2 dwelling houses. These are the controls for R2, Sutherland Shire’s low-density residential zone. Do not apply these figures to a dual occupancy, duplex, secondary dwelling or multi-dwelling housing development — those are assessed under different standards, which Feasibly has not codified.
What qualifies these Sutherland Shire controls?
- Source is the current Sutherland DCP 2015, Chapter 2 Dwelling Houses (May 2026 revision) linked from the council's DCP page. The chapter is split by zone; Part c is the R2 Low Density Residential zone (standard low-density dwelling house). Other parts cover C3, C4, R3, R4, E1 and SP3 zones.
- SITE COVERAGE: null — no site coverage percentage or area control is stated anywhere in the chapter (word 'coverage' absent). Bulk is instead controlled via 2-storey height limit and a 60%-of-site-depth built-form rule (cl.1.2).
- LANDSCAPED AREA: no site-wide landscaped-area or deep-soil percentage. The only landscaping % (cl.4.2(1)) requires max 50% hard surface within the front setback, with the remaining 50% as deep soil landscaping — this applies to the front setback only, not the whole site, so landscaped_flat_pct/tiers/deep_soil are null. Also cl.4.2(3): min 4 trees per lot (2 within 3m of front boundary, 2 within 2m of rear boundary).
- SETBACK TABLE 1 additional values not captured in scalar fields: front internal-lot 4.0m; side second-storey 1.5m; side internal-lot 1.5m; side bush-fire-prone-land 1.5m; rear internal-lot 4.0m. side_setback_m=0.9 is the ground-floor side minimum.
- min_boundary_setback_m left null — the DCP gives per-boundary setbacks (Table 1) rather than a single generic minimum boundary setback; the smallest value is the 0.9m ground-floor side.
- PRIVATE OPEN SPACE: 36m2 min, min dimension 5m, of which 9m2 paved (cl.5.2(3)); 10m2 of POS must get 3h solar access 9am-3pm at winter solstice. No reduced minimum for small sites.
- Fetch note: the council PDF host is behind a Cloudflare managed challenge that blocked Zyte's byte-download and the Jina reader; the PDF was retrieved by driving Zyte's browser to navigate to the PDF (clearing the challenge, HTTP 200) then same-origin fetching the 1.8MB %PDF-1.7 bytes and running pdftotext -layout.
Wondering how this compares with asking an AI to read the scheme? We wrote that up here.
How reliable is this Sutherland Shire DCP data?
These values were machine-extracted from the source DCP and have not been independently re-checked. Treat them as screening grade: good enough to compare councils and to know which questions to ask, not a substitute for reading the clause before you rely on it. This is a different and lower tier of confidence than our Victorian zone schedules, which are read and verified from the source planning scheme by a person. We do not present the two as equivalent.
A council's DCP can be amended at any time and this page reflects the document as at 2026-08-29. Where a control is absent above, the DCP either sets no number or assesses that parameter on merit.
This information is provided for research and preliminary screening only. It does not constitute professional planning, legal or architectural advice. Always verify with Sutherland Shire before making decisions.
Sutherland Shire planning controls — common questions
Do these Sutherland Shire controls apply to a duplex or dual occupancy?
No. The figures on this page are Sutherland Shire’s dwelling-house controls. A dual occupancy, duplex, secondary dwelling or multi-dwelling housing development is assessed under different standards — Feasibly has not codified those, so do not apply the numbers above to one.
Which zone do these Sutherland Shire controls apply to?
R2 Low Density Residential — Sutherland Shire’s low-density residential zone. Confirmed against the zones the Sutherland Shire LEP actually contains. This page presents the low-density residential case; some DCP sections also cover other residential zones, and the source above names the zones it applies to.
What planning controls does Sutherland Shire publish for dwellings?
Sutherland Shire publishes 5 dwelling controls in Sutherland Shire Development Control Plan 2015, Chapter 2 Dwelling Houses — Part c: Dwelling Houses in the R2 Low Density Residential Zone (May 2026 version): front setback, secondary street setback, side setback, rear setback, private open space. Each value and its clause reference is listed on this page, as at 2026-08-29.
Does NSW have a statewide dwelling setback standard?
No. The Local Environmental Plan sets zone, building height and floor space ratio, but the numbers that shape a dwelling — setbacks, site coverage, landscaped area and private open space — sit in each council’s Development Control Plan. That is why these figures are published per council rather than per state.
How reliable are these Sutherland Shire figures?
They are machine-extracted from Sutherland Shire Development Control Plan 2015, Chapter 2 Dwelling Houses — Part c: Dwelling Houses in the R2 Low Density Residential Zone (May 2026 version) and have not been independently re-checked, so treat them as screening grade — good enough to compare councils and to know which questions to ask, not a substitute for reading the clause. This is a lower confidence tier than our Victorian schedules, which a person reads and verifies from the source scheme.
Do these controls apply to every property in Sutherland Shire?
No. These are the council-wide published figures for low-density residential — dwelling houses. The zone, any overlays and the consent triggers that actually apply depend on the individual parcel, and a control absent from this page means the DCP either sets no number or assesses that parameter on merit — not that the requirement is zero.
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