Building a house can be quite tricky especially if one does not have any experience in construction; it gets even more complicated when you want a pool in your backyard and can’t get your Council to approve your Development Application (DA). The good news is that there are professionals who are there to help. Every council has their own sets of rules and restrictions also known as Development Control Plan (DCP).

DCP specific aim is to provide comprehensive guidelines for different types of development in addition to the provisions of the legal planning instrument (SEPP, REP or LEP).

DCPs are important in the planning system because they provide a flexible means of identifying additional development controls and standards for addressing development issues without the need for a formal statutory plan.

However sometimes council can be difficult to deal with when it comes to compliance. So here’s a tip if you want to put a pool in your backyard but you don’t have enough land space after providing the sufficient landscape percentage requirement. I have found that some Councils*:

At DA stage, do not include the pool in your DA plans, leave it as a grassed area and make sure that the area where you want to put your pool is free from stormwater pipes or underground Stormwater tanks.

Once your DA has been approved, proceed with building as per the plan. Once your plans are certified and issues to you, put in a complying development for the swimming pool and Voìla! Because the complying development does not require any landscape plan, the construction of the pool is independently dealt with

In case you have already consulted with your pool specialist and finalised the plan, here is also a solution for you:

The area of the pool can be deducted from the total area and hence giving you a smaller land area hence a smaller landscape area compliance.

* You should make sure that your Landscape Architect checks this fact with your Council