This Planning Insight reads a specific proposal — a new dwelling house — against the controls that actually apply to the land. For this Insight the customer uploaded their title search, Deposited Plan and 88B Instrument and their s10.7 Planning Certificate from the NSW Planning Portal, so it goes well beyond the free Property Snapshot: it reads the easements and restrictions registered on the title and the precise extent of each control. It is not a compliance check of drawn plans — once you have plans, the $399 report tests them clause-by-clause. Property identifiers have been redacted in this public sample.
What your title (88B Instrument) reveals — the free snapshot cannot see this
- Restriction on the use of land (88B, term redacted): the lot is burdened by a restriction limiting it to one dwelling house and fixing a building envelope set back from the rear boundary. This is decisive: a dual occupancy or secondary dwelling is not available here on the title even though the R2 zone and the LMR / Housing SEPP pathways might otherwise permit one — unless the restriction is released or modified (s 88B/88K). Your single-dwelling project is consistent with it.
- Drainage easement (Easement, width redacted): an inter-allotment drainage easement runs across the rear of the lot in favour of the downhill lot and council. You cannot build over it and council’s consent is required for works near it, so the rear strip is effectively unavailable for the building footprint.
- Positive covenant (on-site detention): a positive covenant requires an on-site stormwater detention system to be installed and maintained. It binds you as owner and will need to be reflected in the stormwater design and the BASIX/engineering documentation.
Controls — and why the precise extent matters
Heritage Conservation Area (LEP) — whole of lot: the lot sits within a Heritage Conservation Area, so a new dwelling needs development consent supported by a Heritage Impact Statement; design must respect the contributory character of the streetscape.
Flood Planning Area — partial: here is where the deeper read pays for itself. The free snapshot only reports the lot as “flood-affected”. Reading the s10.7 certificate and the council flood map against the Deposited Plan, the Flood Planning Area covers only the rear ~30% of the lot below the flood planning level — the front, where the dwelling would sit, is above it and outside the flood controls. So flooding mainly drives floor levels and fill if you build into the rear, not a constraint on the dwelling envelope itself.
Zone & approval pathway
R2 Low Density Residential: a dwelling house is permissible with development consent. The Heritage Conservation Area removes any complying-development (CDC) shortcut, so this is a DA. The building envelope is driven by the LEP/DCP and — critically — by the 88B restriction and the rear easement, which sit inside the planning envelope and bind regardless of what the DCP allows.
Why the deeper analysis matters here
A free snapshot would not have told you the 88B restriction rules out a second dwelling, that the rear easement removes part of the buildable area, or that a positive covenant commits you to on-site detention. It would also have treated the whole lot as flood-affected. With the title and the s10.7 read together, the real picture is clear: one dwelling, set forward of the rear easement and the flood line, designed for the Heritage Conservation Area with on-site detention.
Next step
When you have concept plans, the $399 report runs them against the LEP, the DCP controls, the Heritage Impact requirements and the title restrictions — and tells you whether the design will satisfy a DA, or exactly where it needs to change before lodgement.