Boarding house alignment

Boarding house controls have been tightened across Canterbury-Bankstown, following last night’s Council decision to adopt a proposal to amend the Canterbury Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2012 and Canterbury Development Control Plan (CDCP) 2012.

The proposed changes aim to improve design and amenity for boarding houses in the former Canterbury area, to align with controls already in place in the former Bankstown area.

The former Canterbury Council did not have specific controls for boarding house development, and relied solely on the NSW Government’s rules for boarding houses under the Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).

This resulted in development of boarding houses on very small and narrow lots, with minimal setbacks, poor ventilation, and little regard for sunlight.

City of Canterbury Bankstown Mayor, Khal Asfour, said more affordable housing was needed in our city, but not at the cost of poor design and amenity for neighbours and residents.

“By aligning the Canterbury and Bankstown controls, new boarding house developments will only be allowed on appropriate sites, and must follow planning rules, like access to sunlight and air flow,” he said.

The amended controls for the Canterbury LEP and DCP outline requirements for:

Mayor Asfour said there were 20 applications for boarding houses in the Canterbury area, currently being processed by Council.

“In fairness to those applicants who lodged a development application before we finished consulting with the community about the proposed changes, any boarding house applications lodged before Friday 1 February 2019 will be assessed under the previous controls,” he said.

“While they are not as rigorous as the new controls, they still require a merit assessment and consideration of whether the proposed development would be compatible with the character of the local area.”