What business is permissible in a residentially zoned neighbourhood?

The lack of a consistent definition of Short Term Holiday Letting, the rapid growth of the online booking industry and the ambiguity of what is and isn't permissible within a residential zone is why the State Government has put out an options paper on Short Term Holiday Letting such as AirBnB , Stayz and TripAdvisor.

The aim is to develop a framework to hopefully provide a balance between people being able to utilise their assets for economic gain but importantly not compromise the integrity of the neighbourhood in which they are placed or the amenity of the residents that call a place home.

Further to last months article on NSW Government Short Term Holiday Letting (STHL) options report we have reviewed the document and have provided below a brief summary, in the context of residential neighbourhoods, of the key elements which relate to regulation/compliance and planning controls.

In regards to the regulation/compliance component, the report provides commentary on three options being:

1. Industry Self Regulation 
2. Government Regulation 
3. Combination of Government and Self Regulation 

It is our opinion that in order to protect the amenity of residents and maintain the character of our neighbourhoods and community, registration, complaints management, penalties for non conformance and monitoring (i.e. number of days of use etc) should be controlled by Government. Other functionary tasks, that don’t have impacts on amenity, including education etc can be dealt with through self regulation.

The second component deals with planning controls including

• Limits on number of days per year of use 
• Limits to length of stay 
• Limits to number of rooms/guests 
• Regulation based on whether hosts live on site or don’t live on site 

Thresholds based on above criteria will determine whether STHL is either

• Exempt Development 
• Complying Development 
• Requires Development Consent 

It is considered reasonable that where hosts live on site the operation would be categorised as exempt development provided the operation is registered. Exempt development doesn’t require Council approval and would be considered to have low risk to residential amenity as the hosts live on site and affectively control/police the behaviour of guests to ensure code of conduct is enforced.

Complying Development would apply to operations were owners don’t live on site and a threshold of number of days of operation is set, number of guests is set and the operation is registered.

A Development Application would need to be lodged when the threshold criteria of days of use, number of guests etc is exceeded.

There are feedback options on the NSW Planning & Environment website. You can fill in a submission form, complete a survey or write to The Director of Housing Policy.

The Progress Association will be providing a template for people to use which addresses items outlined in above summary for submission to Department of Planning. It is anticipated that this template will be available on CPPA webpage from Monday 25th September.

Of interest there was a story on ABC 702 (Sydney) on Monday 4th September on impacts of STHL on residents in strata, the story opened with the commentator advising that the market penetration of Airbnb in Australia was the highest of any country in the world. With this in mind we urge people to consider the options paper carefully and make submissions to Department of Planning and also contact Greg Pipers office as per our August newsletter advice. (NB Submissions close 31 October 2017).

Depending on community interest CPPA may look at arranging speakers to talk on this topic in October. If you are interested could you please send an email or sms to Suzanne via a committee contact, or make a comment on the Facebook page. Details will be provided when the level of interest is known.

There has been quite a bit of concern about this issue across the State, but it starts in our suburbs. A website www.neighboursnotstrangers.com has lots of information about the impacts that are being felt.