R-Zoning, What Does it Mean?

Hi Arthur,

The R-Code technically refers to how many dwellings can be placed on a 1.00 acre area. ie. R-40 = 40 houses per acre, or about 250sqm per lot. That means if you have a 900ish sqm lot, you “could” put a maximum of 4 villas/townhouses on the land.
As purplekiss said however, this is the maximum, and subject to other conditions by the local government and planning commision. Conditions can include things such as minimum frontage/setbacks, number of car parking spaces, minimum outdoor entertainment area (approx 20m for R-40), access and several others.
Best thing to do would be contact the local government and ask for a copy of their residential design codes, and the relevent state planning commission for a copy of their subdivsion guidelines.

Best wishes

Chris

Hi,
This is my first post so please bear with me. I have recently been looking at zonings, etc and come to the conclusion that whilst councils may be common in there thinking of zone classification, they are certainly different in there views of what can be done. For example building setbacks from the road, significant trees and how they are evaluated, corner allotments, etc, etc.
Suggest you speak with council as l have found them quite approachable and willing to help.

Good luck![biggrin]

Frank De Jong

Does anyone know who the best person to speak to about this would be? Lands Planning and Environment etc.? I wouldn’t mind trying to get hold of a copy of the legislation etc for it.

Thanks!

things must be different in aussie land.  here in the US, R-40 zoning generally means minimum lot size is 40,000 square feet. (which means any R40 lot smaller than 80,000 SF cannot be subdivided without a zoning change)

Vs – it usually means that they are proposing to change the zoning from the existing zoning of R20 to R30. That is, you are then able to potentially build more houses per hectare. Best way to find out is to check out the website for the local shire (think it may be in Shire of Gosnells?) to see their local planning drafts. To fully cover yourself you probably should write to them requesting written confirmation of their plans.

Hope this helps.

The R code relates to the maximum lots (units or houses) per hectare of land (10,000m^2). It also has setback restrictions and wall length restrictions at certain setbacks. Generally you can get away with a lot size within 10% of the calculated r code size. The state planning commissions adhere to the r code and the local councils place more restrictions such as maximum coverage per lot and shadow restrictions.

Cheers

John

have just googled this in wa

zoning name                         size
R17.5                                               500  
R20                                                   440
R25                                                   320
R30                                                  270
R35                                                    235
R40                                                     200
R50                                                   160
R60                                                   160

Note: Assumes single or grouped dwellings only. Multiple dwellings have different area requirements. Refer to R-Codes.

Sounds like a marketing ploy by a RE agent to me, with no guarantee that the zone change will ever occur. And I would be very surprised if a council would put it in writing that they are considering a zoning change due to legal and liability reasons!!

Cheers,
Luke