3.6 Commercial and Mixed Use Development
Part 3 – Land Use Controls
The Inner West contains a number of vibrant and highly valued "Main Streets". This section establishes the framework for the operation of those commercial and mixed-use areas, aiming to balance economic vitality with high-quality residential amenity.
Development is to prioritise a human-scale environment. This requires buildings to address the street with active shopfronts at ground level while utilizing upper-level building setbacks to mitigate impacts on adjacent sensitive uses. A critical priority is managing the transition between commercial hubs and low-density residential neighbourhoods and heritage.
This section applies to development applications in the following contexts:
- Land Zones: E1 (Local Centre), E2 (Commercial Centre), and MU1 (Mixed Use).
- Specific Uses: All commercial premises and Shop-Top Housing, regardless of the zone.
This section provides controls to guide the built form of buildings containing shop top housing. See Part 3.3 (Residential Flat Buildings and Shop-Top Housing) and the NSW Apartment Design Guide (ADG) for controls and guidance on achieving high quality living environments for occupants of these developments.
Objectives
Desired Character and Streetscape: To ensure development is consistent with the established or desired character of the locality by integrating the building's scale, massing, and materials with the predominant streetscape patterns and significant landscape elements.
Transition in scale: To provide a sensitive transition in scale and form to adjoining low-density areas, heritage places, and other sensitive interfaces, using design measures such as stepping of built form to mitigate visual and amenity impacts.
Neighbourhood Amenity: To maintain reasonable amenity of existing low-scale residential areas and heritage items.
Respect Heritage: To respect and reinforce the established character and built form of heritage properties through sympathetic design.
Context: To minimise visual bulk when viewed from neighbouring properties and the public domain and ensure building height relates appropriately to the site's topography and surrounding context.
Controls
Transition and Character
Development adjoining sensitive land such as, R2 Low Density Residential zones, 1–2 storey residential accommodation, heritage-listed items, or Heritage Conservation Areas (HCAs), is to provide a clear transition in built form, as follows:
- a)Set buildings back 3 m from the common boundary
- b)Building height must not exceed:
- i.Three (3) storeys where it is located between 3 and 6 metres from a common boundary
- ii.Ten (10) storeys where it is located over six metres from a common boundary
Where setbacks are used to reduce visual impact, they are to be landscaped and incorporate façade articulation and landscaped building components e.g. planters, green walls to minimise visual bulk and improve privacy
Objectives
Enhance the Urban Environment and Public Domain: To create a high-quality urban environment, ensuring that buildings enhance the streetscape and public domain, and promote street activation and safety.
Reinforce Character Integration and Evolution: To ensure development aligns with the Desired Future Character of the area while providing a physical transition that respects the scale and detailing of the immediate streetscape, through the strategic use of setbacks, materials, and massing that mediate between the existing context and future density goals
Achieve Appropriate Bulk, Scale, and Massing: To achieve a cohesive built form, development is to maintain appropriate bulk, scale, and massing, including a human-scale street wall and manage building height to reduce visual bulk.
Controls
Orient buildings to face the primary street frontage.
Locate building entries and accessways for both commercial premises and residential units on the primary street frontage. Entries are to be visible, easy to find, and accessible from the street.
Design entries to contribute positively to the streetscape and reduce visual impact through appropriate detailing, landscaping, and articulation.
Ensure entries allow casual observation of the street and provide a high level of safety and security.
Provide a clear and sensitive transition between public and private spaces at building entries, ensuring strong visual and functional engagement with the public domain
Do not allow stairs, ramps, level changes, handrails, or other service structures to dominate the front setback.
Bulk and street wall height
Ensure building bulk is compatible with the prevailing width and depth of buildings in the streetscape, unless the site is in a neighbourhood identified for change (see Part 4).
Maintain a consistent street wall height along primary and corner frontages, based on the prevailing height in storeys, unless the site is in a neighbourhood identified for change (see Part 4).
Ensure building height is compatible with the prevailing street wall height and does not dominate the public domain, unless the site is in a neighbourhood identified for change (see Part 4).
Consider a height transition where sites adjoin a building that is substantially taller than the prevailing streetscape height.
Corner sites
Reinforce the visual prominence of corner sites through strong built form, massing, and high-quality architectural design. Ensure development activates both primary and secondary street frontages by building to the front boundaries, creating an active, continuous streetscape.
Ensure that adaptive reuse development of former corner shops retain their positive architectural elements to the street, including doorways, windows and any awnings
Building depth
Limit building depth above the first floor to:
- a)Envelope depth: between 10 metres and 22 metres
- b)Internal plan depth: between 10 metres and 18 metres
Building separation
Zero separation is permitted where:
- a)Blank walls abut or allow for future abutment while achieving compliance with other DCP controls
- b)Zero separation is consistent with the streetscape context
- c)Acceptable amenity outcomes are retained for neighbouring properties in accordance with the provisions of Section 2.4 - Amenity
Where the building separation is across property boundaries, share the building separation distance equally between owners:
- a)6 metres from the boundary for habitable rooms, balconies, roof terraces or similar
- b)3 metres from the boundary for non-habitable rooms of dwellings or commercial uses
- c)Nil setback for blank walls
Front setbacks – ground floor
Build the street-facing portion of the building to the predominant front building line to maintain a continuous street wall. Provide zero front setback where this is the prevailing pattern of the streetscape
Variations are permitted only where:
- a)A forecourt or widened footpath is required by Council
- b)The setback is needed in order to protect the setting of an adjacent heritage item, or
- c)The setback is needed in order to maintain the visual prominence of a significant parapet corner return on an adjacent building. In this instance, the proposed building may be required to be set back at upper levels, however lower floors, being those matching the prevailing street wall height, are to follow the typical front setback pattern for that component of the building
Side setbacks are generally not permitted in the front portion of the building where zero side setbacks are the typical pattern of the streetscape.
Upper-level setbacks
Where a building height exceeds the established street wall height, the upper levels are to be set back to maintain a human scale and minimise wind downdrafts. All upper-level setbacks are to be measured horizontally in depth from the front (street) wall alignment at the street wall height. Unless specified in a site-specific character statement, apply the following:
- a)Match the nearest upper-level setback on the same street block.
- b)No Precedent: Apply the minimum setbacks in the table below:
Table 3.6.1 Minimum setbacks
| Location | Street Width | Required Upper-Level Setback |
|---|---|---|
| Ashfield & Town Centres | Less than 20m | 3m |
| Heritage Conservation Areas (HCAs) | Any width | 6m (to ensure the addition is "hidden" from the street) |
| Other Areas | Less than 20m | 6m |
| All Areas | 20m or greater | 3m |
Rear and side setbacks
Where a lot adjoins a rear lane:
- a)Street Wall: The building is to be built to the lane boundary up to a height of 6m (2 storeys).
- b)Upper-Level Setback: Levels above 6m are to be set back a minimum of 3m from the lane boundary.
Balconies and terraces are not to encroach into the required upper-level setbacks.
Sun-shading devices and architectural fins may encroach up to 450mm into the setback, provided they do not facilitate overlooking.
Objectives
High-Quality Architectural Expression: To deliver building façades that exhibit a distinct base, middle, and top, utilizing high-quality materials and detailing to provide visual interest and rhythm.
Contextual Integration: To ensure that façade proportions, window patterns, and material palettes complement the established local character and maintain a cohesive relationship with neighbouring developments.
Modulation of Visual Bulk: To utilise architectural articulation and modulation to break up the perceived mass of buildings and avoid large, unarticulated blank walls.
Location of Services: To ensure that essential site facilities and services are well integrated into the building's architecture to minimise visual clutter on the streetscape.
Controls
Facade, Materials and Detailing
Apply building materials, façade design, and articulation to create a distinct base, middle, and top. Ensure all elevations have a high level of architectural quality and visual interest. Avoid blank, unarticulated side and rear walls.
Design new façades to enhance the existing built character by interpreting and translating any positive characteristics found in the street and locality into design solutions, including:
- a)Massing and articulation of building parts
- b)Verandas, balconies, and porches
- c)Window shapes, textures, patterns, colours, and decorative detailing
- d)Scale, rhythm, and proportion appropriate to the building's use and desired character
- e)Minimising the use of large expanses of glass or reflective materials, including glass blocks, where these would detract from the established or desired streetscape character
Design new façades to enhance the existing built character by interpreting and translating positive characteristics of the street and locality into contemporary design solutions, including:
Select materials that complement the prevailing streetscape or desired future character. Render is not supported for buildings 14 m or taller.
When altering façades, remove incompatible elements and reinstate original features.
Design buildings to incorporate essential site facilities, such as:
- a)Mailboxes
- b)Air conditioning equipment
- c)Waste and recycling areas
- d)General storage
- e)Gatehouses, substations
- f)Fire hydrants or booster valves
- g)Water storage or recycling tanks
- h)Drying areas
- i)Waterproof power outlets and water taps on balconies
Site facilities are to be adequately concealed and not dominate the site or the streetscape.
Essential site facilities and services are to be well integrated into the building's architecture to minimise visual clutter on the streetscape. Where required, electricity substations, fire hydrants and booster valves are to be incorporated within the façade and designed with high architectural quality.
Air-conditioning facilities are not to be visible from the street.
Objectives
Urban Greening and Cooling: To enhance the amenity of commercial centres by integrating vegetation that provides shade, reduces the urban heat island effect, and improves the visual setting of buildings.
Softening the Built Form: To utilise landscaping as a visual buffer, particularly at the interface between commercial/mixed use developments and sensitive residential zones, to reduce the impact of building bulk.
Biodiversity and Permeability: To support local biodiversity by providing habitat and to maximise on-site water infiltration through permeable surface treatments.
Functional Open Space: To provide well-designed communal or private open spaces for residents in mixed-use developments that support recreation and wellbeing.
Controls
Landscaped areas to be consistent with Part 2.8 -Trees and Landscaping and are to be determined on merit and dependent on the overall streetscape and the desired future character for the neighbourhood (refer to Part 4- Site Specific Areas).
For development that includes residential accommodation, a minimum of 80% of the required landscaped area is to be located within common property to ensure professional maintenance and communal access. Up to 20% may be provided in private garden courtyards.
Objectives
Pedestrian Comfort and Connectivity: To provide continuous, high-quality weather protection in commercial centres to enhance the amenity, comfort, and year-round usability of the public domain.
Visual Continuity and Integration: To ensure awning designs achieve visual consistency with adjacent buildings and the broader streetscape while successfully integrating with infrastructure, including utility poles, signage, and street trees.
Corner Activation and Safety: To maximise pedestrian safety and street vibrancy at corner locations by ensuring awning coverage wraps into secondary street frontages to provide continuous protection and visibility.
Night-time Amenity and Security: To maintain and extend under-awning "white-way" lighting to support a safe, well-lit, and active night-time economy.
Controls
Provide awnings along the building frontage in town centres and in locations shown on the Active Frontages Map in Part 4 of this DCP.
Awnings are to be between 3.6 m and 4 m high and integrate with adjacent awnings.
Set awnings back at least 600 mm from the kerb to allow for smart poles, utility poles, traffic signs, and signals.
Maintain sufficient clearance from street trees to enable them to reach mature height.
Design awnings to be flat or near-flat, consistent with the context.
Ensure awnings are of high architectural quality, reflecting the host building's design and complementing the streetscape.
Wrap awnings around into side streets on corner buildings, to create a safer and more welcoming environment.
White-way lighting
Maintain any existing white-way lighting under awnings during development.
Extend missing sections of white-way lighting at the proponent's cost (including the cost of design by the electricity provider) where appropriate.
Design white-way lighting extensions to be sympathetic to adjoining and nearby installations.
Relocate existing white-way lighting switch panels from inside shops to the building frontage under the awning in a suitable vandal-proof enclosure.
Objectives
Maintain Centre's Core Role and Character: To preserve the primary role of centres as locations for business, retail, and entertainment, maintaining their traditional main street structure and character.
Balance Viability and Amenity: To achieve an appropriate balance between promoting economic viability and protecting residential amenity.
Compatible Built Form and Street Edge: To ensure the built form, including siting and consistent setbacks, is compatible with the desired future character for the locality and maintains a consistent building line in town centres.
High Quality Design and Street Activation: To require building façades and shopfronts that achieve high architectural quality and use quality materials, and to ensure active ground floor street frontages promote safety, interaction, and complement the character of the public domain.
Provide Essential Support Facilities and Visual Amenity: To provide adequate on-site facilities to support commercial uses and to preserve the visual amenity and security of commercial centres outside normal trading hours.
Controls
Commercial Development
Ensure building massing at the street frontage is compatible with the prevailing street wall height and does not create an overbearing presence on the public domain, unless an alternate desired future character is specified in Part 4 of this DCP.
Design building proportions at the front to reflect the prevailing width and height of buildings within the streetscape.
Create the appearance of individual narrow façades typical of local centres as illustrated in Figure 3.6.4.
To provide vertical bays consistent with the dimensions established by elements on adjoining development such as party walls and windows.
To provide horizontal banding that clearly delineate ground floor commercial level from the upper floors and align with elements on adjoining development such as cornices, balconies, and roofs.
Provide visual interest by including recesses, projections, and other modulation.
Provide a co-ordinated pattern of fenestration that complements the facade and neighbouring buildings.
Where side boundary walls are visible from surrounding streets, design and finish them as an integrated part of the building frontage.
Street Interface and Activation
Provide floor-to-floor heights for ground floor tenancies as detailed in Table 3.6.2.
Table 3.6.2 Required internal floor-to-floor heights for ground floor tenancies for commercial or mixed-use buildings
| Location | Required Floor-to-Floor Height |
|---|---|
| Site adjoining a heritage item or contributory building | Match the existing floor-to-floor height of the adjoining heritage item or contributory building |
| All other commercial or mixed-use buildings | Minimum 5 metres |
Note: Ground level floor-to-floor height includes slope/topography allowance.
Retain and restore existing shopfronts that display high architectural value.
Design shopfronts for infill development to be consistent with the existing streetscape character.
Provide visual transparency between the footpath and commercial tenancy on street-fronting façades.
Provide active street frontages by:
- a)Including 70% transparent glazing with unobstructed views from the footpath to a depth of at least 6 m into ground floor tenancies
- b)Locating entries, display windows, customer service areas and key activities areas on the ground floor, to create pedestrian interest and interaction
- c)Locating building services (e.g., fire hydrants, plant rooms, service bays) away from the primary street frontage and designing them with high architectural quality and creative use of materials
Restricting driveway and vehicle access to the side or rear of the site, except where no other vehicle access is available. Driveway entries at the street frontage will only be supported where this is a predominant character of neighbouring development, and the driveway entry occupies a maximum of 30% of the frontage width.
Make pedestrian entries clearly identifiable from street level:
- a)Locate vehicle access and loading away from the primary street frontage
- b)Provide pedestrian awnings over adjacent public footpaths
Commercial Tenancy Requirements
Design commercial tenancies to accommodate:
- a)Public accessibility
- b)Space for back-of-house activities (e.g., commercial kitchens, goods storage)
- c)Loading facilities and off-street vehicle and bicycle parking
- d)Waste and recycling storage
- e)Sanitary facilities with disabled access
- f)Employee amenities
Provide space for installation of a grease trap that can be easily serviced in all ground floor commercial spaces.
Objectives
Commercial Primacy: To prioritise the continuous retail and commercial function of centres by ensuring ground-floor frontages are dedicated to active, non-residential uses.
Resident Amenity: To ensure Shop Top Housing provides a high level of residential amenity and design quality consistent with the NSW Government's standards for apartment living and small-scale shop top housing provides high-quality internal amenity and functional outdoor space that is not compromised by its commercial context.
Streetscape Activation: To prioritise active commercial frontages by ensuring residential entries are subordinate in scale and width to shopfronts, while enhancing public safety through passive surveillance and unobstructed sightlines between the entry and the street.
Controls
Land Use and Frontage
The residential parts of shop-top housing and mixed-use developments are to comply with Part 3.4 – Residential Flat Buildings.
A minimum of 80% of the ground floor street frontage is to be dedicated to active commercial or retail uses.
Ground floor residential entries are not to exceed a maximum width of 3 metres per street frontage.
Residential Entries are to:
- a)Be physically separate from commercial loading and entry points
- b)Be equipped with an integrated "security transition zone" (e.g., an airlock or foyer) that is well-lit and visible from the street
- c)Include a mail collection area and a clear "delivery zone" for large household goods with a minimum ceiling height of 2.7m
Residential Amenity
All Shop Top Housing developments that meet the threshold of three (3) or more storeys and four (4) or more dwellings to comply with the design quality principles and design criteria of the NSW Apartment Design Guide (ADG).
The following ADG "Design Criteria" are mandatory for Shop Top Housing to ensure internal environmental performance:
- a)Solar Access: Living rooms and private open spaces of at least 70% of apartments are to receive a minimum of 2 hours direct sunlight between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on 21 June.
- b)Natural Ventilation: At least 60% of apartments are to be naturally cross ventilated in the first nine storeys of a building.
Ceiling Heights: Minimum finished floor-to-ceiling heights to be:
- a)2.7m for all habitable rooms.
- b)2.4m for non-habitable rooms.
- c)3.3m for the ground floor commercial/retail component (to allow for future flexibility).
Controls
At least 70% of dwellings to receive a minimum of 2 hours of direct sunlight to living rooms and private open spaces between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on 21 June.
100% of dwellings to be naturally cross-ventilated.
All bathrooms and laundries to have an operable window for natural ventilation where possible.
Each dwelling to have a primary private open space (balcony or terrace) directly accessible from the main living area.
Minimum Dimensions:
- a)Studio / 1-Bedroom: 8m2 (min. depth 2m).
- b)2-Bedroom: 10m2 (min. depth 2m).
- c)3+ Bedroom: 12m2 (min. depth 2.4m).
Dwellings to be designed so that bedrooms are located away from noisy commercial elements such as exhaust fans, loading docks, or busy street fronts.
Where a balcony faces a busy road, it is to be designed as a "Wintergarden" (fully glazed with operable louvres) to provide a usable outdoor space that blocks noise.
Physical Separation of Services
To prevent cross-contamination and amenity loss, the following are to be provided as separate systems for residential and commercial tenants:
- a)Vertical circulation (stairs and lifts).
- b)Waste and recycling storage rooms (including separate ventilation systems to prevent odour transfer).
- c)Utility meters and plant equipment.
Employment Space Design (Flexibility)
Ground floor commercial spaces to have a minimum finished floor-to-ceiling height of 3.3m to allow for future adaptation to a variety of uses.
Commercial areas to be designed as "open plan" with minimal internal structural columns to allow for future sub-division or amalgamation.
Visual Amenity and Windows
Only windows to habitable rooms (e.g. bedrooms, living areas) are to face the primary street frontage.
Windows for bathrooms, laundries, and storage areas to be located on side or rear elevations. Where site constraints require these on the front elevation, they are to be integrated into the facade design using high-quality privacy screening or translucent glazing that matches the overall building aesthetic.
Objectives
Guest Amenity: To provide a satisfactory standard of health, comfort, and amenity for guests staying in tourist and visitor accommodation.
Room Size: To ensure rooms and facilities are appropriately sized and designed for their intended use.
Compliance and Management: To require responsible management practices and compliance with relevant legislation including length-of-stay requirements.
Neighbour Amenity: To protect the privacy and amenity of neighbouring residential properties by minimising visual and acoustic impacts.
Controls
Design tourist and visitor accommodation to:
- a)Comply with the built form provisions of this part
- b)Minimise visual and acoustic privacy impacts on nearby residential properties
The development is to operate in accordance with all applicable legislation, regulations, and guidelines governing tourist and visitor accommodation, which include, but are not limited to:
- a)Limiting the maximum stay in tourist and visitor accommodation to three months
- b)Displaying the name and 24-hour contact phone number of the site manager or resident caretaker prominently in the reception area
- c)Keeping an Accommodation Register that records the length of stay for every person accommodated, including the on-site manager or caretaker. Keep the register up to date and make it available to Council on request
For backpacker accommodation:
- a)Limit the number of people in a bedroom or dormitory to one person per 3.25 m² of floor space
- b)Provide communal recreation areas at a rate of 0.75 m² per person
- c)Display health information prominently in communal areas, including drug, alcohol, and sexual health advice. Include a referral list of emergency numbers and local health services (drug and alcohol, sexual health, and general health) in the top four languages used by backpackers