Do I need council approval?
Exempt development is work that does not require any approval from Council prior to proceeding, provided that the work complies with the criteria applying to that type of work. It is the responsibility of the property owner to ensure that they can demonstrate that the exempt development criteria has been met, if required to do so.
Prior to determining if your development or works are exempt development, there are certain criteria which must be satisfied. It is the responsibility of the person undertaking the work (ie. the owner in most cases) to ensure that the criteria are met.
The following list are the various categories for exempt development that apply in the Muswellbrook Shire Council area.
If your proposed development or works do not fit within the exempt development criteria, you should check to determine if it will fit within the complying development criteria, before lodging a development application. A complying development application is cheaper and determined faster than a development application and construction certificate.
- Advertising structures
- Access ramps
- Aerials and antennae
- Aquaculture
- Air-conditioning units
- Automatic teller machines (ATM)
- Aviaries
- Awnings, blinds and canopies
- Balconies, decks, patios, pergolas, terraces and verandahs
- Barbecues
- Bed and breakfast accommodation
- Bollards erected for security purposes to existing business premises, office premises or shop
- Bridge and road maintenance
- Building alterations (new external windows, glazed areas and doors)—residential premises
- Cabanas, cubby houses, ferneries, garden sheds, gazebos and greenhouses
- Carports
- Change the use of a premises (or part of a premises) from a business premises to another business premises
- Change the use of a premises (or part of a premises) from a retail premises to another retail premises
- Change the use of a building (or part of a building) from an industry to a light industry
- Clothes hoists and clothes lines
- Communication dishes (radio and satellite)
- Dams
- Demolition
- Driveways
- Earthworks and retaining walls
- Farm buildings and structures
- Fences (non rural) – behind the building line
- Fences (non rural) – forward of the building line
- Fences (rural)
- Filming
- Flagpoles
- Fowl and poultry houses
- Home businesses, home industries and home occupations
- Home-based child care
- Landscaping structures
- Letterboxes
- Minor internal alterations—retail or industrial premises (not including premises involving the preparation of food for sale or consumption)
- Minor external alterations or building works (other than a dwelling)
-
Moveable dwelling installation (including caravans)—on an approved site
- Moveable dwelling installation (including caravans)—on land other than approved sites
- Pathways and paving
- Playground equipment
- Portable swimming pools and spas and child-resistant barriers
- Privacy screens
- Rainwater tanks (above ground)
- Rainwater tanks (below ground)
- Rural earthworks
- Satellite TV dishes
- Scaffolding
- Screen enclosures (of balconies, decks, patios, pergolas, terraces and verandahs
- Shade structures of canvas, fabric, mesh or the like
- Silos
- Skylights, roof windows and ventilators
- Solid fuel heaters
- Temporary builders’ structures
- Tennis court for private or non-commercial use on a rural zoned property and associated with a dwelling house
- Water features and ponds
- Windmills
This page last updated 18 November, 2009 11:02 AM
