The ACT Government is improving planning and leasing processes to support more homes and choice for Canberrans, with the passing of a new Bill to support the missing middle housing reforms, which came into effect on 1 July.
Missing middle housing includes townhouses, duplexes, terraces, secondary residences and other low-rise housing.
The new Bill delivers three main improvements:
- smaller-scale subdivisions and consolidations will move through a simpler approvals process with these DAs no longer considered ‘significant development’. This cuts development application assessment and approval timeframes from 60 days and two rounds of public notification, down to 30-45 working days;
- ‘secondary residences’ on single dwelling leases will no longer require a Crown lease variation. All single-dwelling crown leases will have an automatic entitlement to build a secondary residence, such as a granny flat;
- minor Crown lease variation, including changes to permitted dwelling numbers, will be assessed through a streamlined pathway known as ‘exempt development’. This means a development application is not required to change the lease, cutting assessment time down to 10 days. The Bill does not change the requirement of a development application for design and siting of the additional homes.
Minister for Planning and Sustainable Development, Chris Steel said the changes were focused on improving the efficiency of the planning system and supports the broader program of housing reform aimed at increasing supply and choice across Canberra.
They reflect the ACT Governments commitment to enable 30,000 new homes by 2030, he said.
“The passage of this legislation delivers faster approvals for missing middle housing for Canberrans,” Minister Steel said.
“This is about making the overall planning process simpler so that proponents can get on and deliver more housing and housing choice for Canberrans.
“The changes support the take up of the Government’s landmark missing middle housing reforms including faster approvals for subdivision and block consolidation now allowed on RZ1 blocks since July.
“Under our construction productivity agenda, we will continue to bring forward practical reforms to streamline the delivery of new housing where people want to live.”
For more information on the Missing Middle housing reforms, go to the ACT Planning website.
