The exhibition period closed this week on draft amendments to the Willoughby Local Environmental Plan 2012. The amendments form part of a comprehensive LEP review, with many changes slated and a longer-than-usual community consultation period undertaken. We attended an online information session during the exhibition period and subsequently put in a submission on the LEP amendments.

Broadly, we supported the intention to increase the Affordable Housing Contribution rate from 4 to 10% and in fact, we pressed for a rate even higher than 10 percent.
We urged Council to consider rezoning greater tracts of R2 Low Density Zoned land to R1 General Residential and/or R3 Medium Density Residential, as no ‘upzoning’ to this effect was proposed in the LEP.
Finally, we commended Council for the inclusion into the draft LEP of landscaping and deep soil zone requirements, urban heat mitigation provisions, and design excellence standards. Nonetheless, we do believe greater clarity is needed on the discretionary application of design excellence standards in the LEP.