Blue Mountains Local Environmental Plan 2005
Schedule 1 Locality management within the Villages Part 9 Springwood Village
Part 9 Springwood Village

Division 1: Village Town Centre Precinct

1. Consideration of precinct

1. This Division applies to land shown edged heavy black on the locality plan below named "Springwood Precinct VTC-SP01—Village Town Centre Precinct" and shown by distinctive edging and annotated "VTCSP01" on Map Panel A.

2. Consent shall not be granted to development within the Springwood Precinct VTC-SP01 unless the development proposed to be carried out:
   1. complies, to the satisfaction of the consent authority, with the precinct objectives in achieving the precinct vision statement within this Division, and
   2. complies with the building envelope within this Division, and
   3. is consistent, to the satisfaction of the consent authority, with the design considerations within this Division.

2. Desired future character

(1) Precinct vision statement

This precinct remains a compact town centre, accommodating a diverse range of small-to-medium scale retailers, other businesses and permanent residents.

Buildings are arranged in a traditional main street pattern with continuous rows of one and two-storey shop fronts interspersed by landmark hotels, with a scattering of visually prominent canopy trees on hillsides facing Springwood Avenue and the railway.

Development provides visible indoor activity facing all public places, including streets, laneways and carparks, in order to concentrate pedestrian movement outdoors and to encourage informal community meeting places.

Buildings are designed to reflect the local architectural tradition of Edwardian-era retail terraces, displaying some overall diversity of form and design, and maintaining National Park vistas that are available from public places.

(2) Precinct objectives

1. To maintain and enhance the distinctive traditional pattern of continuous retail terraces interspersed by landmark buildings.
2. To maximise the diversity of retail and other business-related services provided primarily to local communities.
3. To accommodate permanent residents in "shop-top" dwellings that:
   1. promote housing choice, and
   2. incorporate high levels of residential amenity, and
   3. encourage passive surveillance of streets and other public places.
4. To encourage increases in floorspace:
   1. consistent with the appearance and functions desired for this town centre, and
   2. to which public access is provided only via streets, laneways or carpark frontages rather than indoor arcades.
5. To encourage future building forms and designs that are consistent or compatible with the scale and architectural character of existing buildings constructed during the early- twentieth century.
6. To maintain the established village character and modest scale of existing development.
7. To control building heights so as:
   1. to maintain existing National Park vistas from public places, and
   2. to follow the line of sloping topography on hillside sites.
8. To provide landscaped frontages along Springwood Avenue.

3. Building envelope

1. Building height
   1. Buildings shall not exceed a maximum building height of 12 metres or a maximum height at eaves of 9 metres.
   2. External walls fronting a public place shall be contained within a building envelope projected at 45 degrees from a height of 7.5 metres above any boundary or boundaries to that public place.
2. Building setback
   1. Primary street frontage:
      1. Development shall have a setback of 0 metre.
      2. Notwithstanding subparagraph (i), setbacks to Springwood Avenue shall be a minimum of 6 metres and shall be landscaped.
   2. Side boundary setbacks:
      1. Development shall have a setback of 0 metre.
      2. Notwithstanding subparagraph (i), where the side boundary adjoins a public place, setbacks greater than 0 metre may be considered, but only when it can be demonstrated that an active frontage is provided.
3. Site coverage
   1. The maximum site cover for buildings is 100 per cent of the total allotment area.
   2. Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the maximum site cover for buildings on an allotment with a frontage to Springwood Avenue is 70 per cent of the total allotment area.

4. Design considerations

1. Active street frontages
   1. The existing continuity of retail and other business premises on properties that face Macquarie or Raymond Roads is to be retained.
   2. On properties with secondary frontages to any public place:
      1. new retail or other business premises are to be promoted along at least 50 per cent of ground level frontages to public carparks, side streets and laneways, and
      2. for all storeys above ground, balconies or extensive windows facing those public places, or both, are to be provided.
   3. On properties facing Springwood Avenue, extensive balconies or windows, or both, are to be provided in all facades facing that street.
2. Built form and finishes
   1. The appearance of traditional mainstreet shop-terraces facing all principal street frontages is to be promoted. In particular:
      1. a diverse range of narrow shop fronts is to be accommodated, and
      2. continuous awnings or balconies, or both, are to be provided, and
      3. external walls are to be designed as a composition of masonry "piers" with contrasting panels of windows or painted wall finishes, or both.
   2. All visible facades should display a form and finishes that are consistent with or complementary to the architectural character of existing mainstreet shop-terraces dating from the Edwardian- era or the Inter-War period.
   3. On properties that currently support two-storey traditional shop terraces, future development should retain and renovate the principal shop front structure plus the adjoining rooms.
   4. In development on large allotments:
      1. floorspace should be distributed into well-articulated structures that are composed of separate wings or interconnected buildings, and
      2. each building or wing should be capped by a gently-pitched roof, and
      3. each building should be surrounded by garden courtyards that either conserve existing canopy trees or provide space for new eucalypts that are planted to frame individual buildings.
   5. On-site parking areas:
      1. shall be accessed only from the rear or side of buildings via existing public carparks, laneways or secondary streets, and
      2. should be partially concealed behind retail or other business floorspace.
3. Pedestrian amenity and safety
   1. The existing pedestrian network is to be expanded by promoting new retail frontages surrounding the public places.
   2. Existing levels of sunlight available throughout public places during midwinter between 10am and 2pm are to be protected.
   3. Continuous weather protection is to be provided along all public frontages in the form of awnings or overhanging balconies.
   4. Passive surveillance of all public places is to be promoted through appropriate:
      1. orientation of shops, offices and dwellings, and
      2. design of ground floor walls and structures to provide unobstructed sight lines through public places.
4. Parking and vehicle access
   1. Parking shall be provided in accordance with the relevant part of the Council's Better Living DCP.