Background
The City is seeking community feedback on a proposed amendment to Local Planning Scheme No. 3.
On 18 September 2024, the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage published amendments to the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015 (LPS Regulations) that facilitate changes for Short-Term Rental Accommodation Planning Regulations.
The amended LPS Regulations introduce the following new land use categories for STRA:
- ‘Hosted short-term rental accommodation’, where the owner or property manager lives on site while the property is used for STRA. This land use, which replaces the existing ‘bed and breakfast’ land use, is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning approval.
- ‘Unhosted short-term rental accommodation’, where a property is rented on a short-term basis with the landowner living offsite. This land use, which replaces the existing ‘holiday house’ land use, is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning approval if operating for 90 nights or less in a 12-month period, otherwise planning approval is required. Unhosted short-term rental accommodation permits a maximum of 12 guests per night.
The implementation of hosted and unhosted short-term rental accommodation have been incorporated into the ‘deemed’ provisions of the LPS Regulations, meaning that they automatically apply to all local planning schemes and are unable to be altered, varied or excluded by local governments.
These amendments are now in effect and local planning frameworks are required to be updated by 1 January 2026 to align with the LPS Regulations.
Proposal
The purpose of this proposed amendment is to align the City’s Local Planning Scheme No. 3 with the changes to the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015..
The amendment proposes to delete the following land uses from the City’s Scheme: ‘bed and breakfast,’ ‘chalet,’ ‘motel’ and 'tourist ‘development.’
The proposed amendment will introduce the ‘hosted short-term rental accommodation,’ ‘unhosted short-term rental accommodation’ and ‘tourist and visitor accommodation’ land use definitions into the Scheme and assign the land use permissibility within each zone.
The proposed amendments are outlined in the attachment below.
