Service area
Building design and planning approvals in Bayside
Four development control plans, three of them repealed and two of those still operating. Which one governs your application depends on when it was lodged.
The instruments in force
The DCP was adopted 22 March 2023 and applies to applications lodged on or after 10 April 2023. The Botany Bay DCP 2013 and the Rockdale DCP 2011 were repealed but still govern applications lodged before that date. Separately, parts of the LGA sit outside the Bayside LEP entirely — including the Cooks Cove precinct and Port Botany and its surrounds, which are governed by State policies. The LEP itself has been amended at least fourteen times.
Verified 7 September 2026. LEPs are amended constantly and DCP chapters change independently of each other — we confirm the in-force version against your address rather than working from this page.
Establish which instrument applies before anything else
This is the practical trap in Bayside and it is worth stating plainly. Three DCPs have applied to this LGA in the last decade, and the repealed ones did not simply stop — they continue to govern applications lodged before 10 April 2023.
Where that matters: a project with an approval under the Rockdale DCP 2011 that is now being modified, a site where a comparable approval is being used as precedent, or an application that stalled and is being revived. Designing to the Bayside DCP 2022 when the live application sits under a repealed instrument is a real and avoidable error.
The other half of the problem is the parts of the LGA outside the LEP altogether. Cooks Cove and the Port Botany surrounds are governed by State policies, not the local plan, and a site there is a different assessment from the block next door.
The airport shapes the LGA
Sydney Airport sits in the middle of Bayside, and it imposes constraints that don't exist elsewhere in Sydney.
Aircraft noise. Australian Noise Exposure Forecast contours run across a large part of the LGA, and above certain contour values residential development attracts acoustic construction requirements or becomes unsuitable outright. This is a permissibility and design question, not a nice-to-have.
Obstacle limitation surfaces. Height near the airport is constrained by the protected airspace, independently of the LEP height limit. A site can be well under its LEP height and still need approval for the structure or the crane.
Port and industrial land. Port Botany and the industrial estates around it bring heavy vehicle movements, buffer considerations and contamination history into play on nearby sites.
Flood and the low-lying land
Much of Rockdale, Arncliffe, Banksia, Turrella and the land around the Cooks River sits low, and flood classification is common. A flood control lot generally closes complying development, and for a secondary dwelling the flood refuge level is the probable maximum flood rather than the 1% AEP.
On a flood-affected site the first question is not what to build but whether a complying development pathway exists at all. See complying development certificates.
What we do here most
- Alterations and additions across the Rockdale and Bexley housing stock
- Dual occupancy on the R2 land, subject to lot width
- Secondary dwellings, where flood classification is the usual gate
- LMR sites around Rockdale, Wolli Creek, Mascot and Eastgardens
- Commercial and industrial through Botany, Banksmeadow and Mascot — including change of use on former industrial land, where contamination has to be addressed. See change of use
Suburbs we work in
Rockdale · Brighton-Le-Sands · Kogarah Bay · Monterey · Ramsgate Beach · Sans Souci · Dolls Point · Sandringham · Kyeemagh · Arncliffe · Banksia · Bexley · Bexley North · Bardwell Park · Bardwell Valley · Turrella · Wolli Creek · Botany · Mascot · Eastlakes · Pagewood · Daceyville · Hillsdale · Matraville · Banksmeadow · Eastgardens
Not an exhaustive list of the LGA. If your suburb isn't here, we almost certainly still work there — send the address.
Have a site in Bayside?
Send us the address. We'll run the controls that apply to it and tell you what it can carry.