After 50 years in planning limbo, Oxford Falls and Belrose North landowners say Council’s fix would take away most of their building rights and devalue their land.
Northern Beaches Council’s draft Local Environmental Plan (LEP) could change what almost 500 landowners in Oxford Falls Valley and Belrose North’s Deferred Lands are allowed to do with their properties. Residents say the changes could make it harder to build a second dwelling or granny flat, and would sharply cut back how much of their land they can build on. Under the draft LEP, the number of permitted land uses would drop from 170 to between 23 to 44 (depending on zoning). Residents want Council to leave the current rules as is.
Northern Beaches Council has consolidated four planning rulebooks into one set of controls (you can read more about that here).
Warringah Urban Fringe Association (WUFA) represents landowners within the Deferred Lands (properties either side of Wakehurst Parkway and Forest Way) and said they support modernisation and consolidation of planning frameworks, and genuine environmental protection, but not while taking away development rights from landowners and effectively devaluing their land.
“The Deferred Lands are not undeveloped wilderness,” WUFA writes in their submission to Council which they shared with us.
“They contain homes, schools, places of public worship, recreational facilities, approved seniors housing, boarding houses, businesses, roads and other long-established uses.
“They form part of metropolitan Sydney’s urban fringe and must be planned having regard to their actual physical, social and economic context.”
WUFA has made 12 recommendations on the draft LEP, arguing planning controls need to be “fair, evidence-based and consistently applied.” The main concerns are:
- The new rules could make it harder to build a dwelling on properties much smaller than 200,000m² (20 hectares).
- WUFA wants smaller minimum lot sizes than the council has proposed: 20,000m² for RU4 land and 1,000m² for R5 land.
- Mapping used for biodiversity, core habitat, wildlife corridors, waterways, wetlands and riparian areas doesn’t reflect the real conditions on individual properties, WUFA says.
According to Council, the Deferred Lands is one of the few remaining areas, and the only land on the Northern Beaches, that has not been zoned in accordance with the State Government Standard Instrument.
“Under the draft LEP, land in the Deferred Lands would be given standard land use zones, such as environmental conservation, rural, residential, special purpose and public recreation zones,” a Council spokesperson said.
“The draft controls are intended to provide clearer, more consistent planning rules, protect high-value environmental land, support appropriate rural land uses and focus urban development in areas close to centres and public transport.”
This is not the first time landowners have clashed with local government. Residents told Manly Observer they’ve been advocating since 1974 against a proposed 20-hectare building restriction, which resulted in the establishment of the “Deferred Lands”.
The new Deferred Lands
Landowners in the Deferred Lands currently have around 170 permissible land use categories available to them. Under the new zoning, that will fall to 23 in new C3 conservation zones, 24 in R5, 39 in R2 and 44 in RU4.
Development footprint would also shrink. Currently, landowners can build (whether that’s a house, driveway, granny flat or pool) on 70 per cent of their land in Oxford Falls and 50 per cent in Belrose North. WUFA argues that will reduce to 10 per cent.
“You’ve gone from being able to build on 70 per cent of your land … to now only being able to build on 10 per cent of your land,” Landowner John Holman, WUFA member, told Manly Observer.
“You’ve lost six-sevenths of your land area.”
Secondary dwellings like granny flats would be permitted in the R2 and R5 zones but not in RU4 or C3, the two zones covering most of the Deferred Lands. Boarding houses would only be allowed in R2 land near identified centres. Seniors housing would be prohibited outright in C3, RU4 and R5, with existing approved developments carried over only by being individually re-zoned R2.
“At a time when NSW is facing a serious housing shortage, we need to be very careful about introducing new planning controls that unnecessarily remove legitimate housing opportunities,” Mr Holman said.
“We are not advocating uncontrolled development. We are asking for sensible planning controls that protect genuine environmental values while allowing appropriate development where land can support it.”
There is also the question of building a new house on a property.
While dwelling houses are permitted within all four of the zones proposed for the Deferred Lands, a local provision means a dwelling can only be built on lots between two and 20 hectares.
Council confirmed existing lawful dwellings do not become illegal simply because of the changes to planning controls. Rather the draft LEP would guide future development and land use, including whether new dwellings or other developments are permitted.
Mr Holman showed Manly Observer a lot in Wyatt Ave, Belrose that is undeveloped land, but under the two-hectare minimum lot size. Under the draft LEP, he says a home would not be allowed to be built on this small lot.
“They’re trying to sterilise the land,” Mr Holman explained.
“By having land you can’t build on or subdivide, you’re devaluing the land.”
WUFA is asking for Council to leave the Deferred Lands as is. And Independent Narrabeen Ward Councillor Vincent De Luca has echoed their concerns.
“I believe that residents have legitimate concerns that need to be addressed and properly resolved,” he told Manly Observer.
“Successive NSW Ministers for Planning have rejected Council’s zoning proposals regarding these people’s homes, and rightly so.
“Some have been in limbo for decades, and this has resulted in them not even being able to build a front fence or a granny flat.
“It is time for these residents to be treated fairly and receive certainty.”
LEP exhibition extended
In response to community requests, Council has extended the original six-week exhibition period for a further month, ending 30 September 2026. So far, Council has received 600 submissions.
WUFA was a huge advocate for the extension.
Mr Holman said residents, many who have no expertise in planning laws, were expected to read hundreds of pages of the LEP and its appendices to figure out what the changes meant for them. More than 100 Deferred Land landowners attended a WUFA information session on 25 August 2026, and Mr Holman said many were only then understanding how the draft LEP could affect their property. Council was invited to attend the session but did not send a representative.
“Council could’ve sent letters to every landowner in the Deferred Lands and say, look, we are proposing to zone your land X or Y and we’re proposing to impose these clauses on your land, so you’ll no longer be allowed to build a house, you no longer can have schools, you can’t have places of worship etc,” he said.
“But instead, they said, here are hundreds of very detailed pages that no one will understand, and it’s on public submission.”
Council confirmed that they sent direct letters to property owners affected by a proposed zoning change. However, Mr Holman said the letters directed landowners to the draft LEP instead of advising what the zoning changes meant to their property.
Council said they also had information on the Have Your Say webpage, an interactive mapping tool, online webinars (with one focussed on key proposed changes in the ‘deferred lands’ of Oxford Falls Valley and Belrose North), pop-up sessions in local centres, and a dedicated phone hotline to provide responses to specific planning enquiries.
Mr Holman said the webinars were poorly advertised and attended. Landowners have told him that when they rang Council’s hotline, they were told the changes were “really very minor”, which he has called “totally dishonest”.
Have your say
Landowners in Oxford Falls Valley and Belrose North can see how the proposed LEP changes would affect their property by using Council’s interactive planning mapping tool (here).
All Northern Beaches residents can lodge a submission on the draft LEP and DCP before the extended deadline of 11.59pm, Wednesday 30 September 2026 (here).
WUFA has created a comprehensive website which outlines its concerns as related to the Deferred Lands (you can view here).
And to see how the draft LEP and DCP will affect the rest of the Northern Beaches:
Duplex bonanza but no cooking on gas; Council has new planning laws on display
