Blue Mountains City Council — Development Application Data
With a median DA assessment time of 84 days, Blue Mountains City Council processes applications significantly faster than many Sydney metropolitan councils, though the unique heritage and environmental constraints across the region still require careful planning. Since 2021, council has processed 4860 applications, with 1648 lodged in the past year alone. The development landscape is dominated by smaller-scale works, with 3386 applications classified as Other and 905 for alterations and additions, while dual occupancies account for 297 applications. Most projects fall below the $100,000 threshold at 2434 applications, though 562 developments valued between $500,000 and $1 million demonstrate ongoing investment in substantial renovations and new builds. Clause 4.6 variations to vary development standards appear in 6.52% of applications, typically addressing setback and height issues common to the Mountains' challenging topography. A Plan Advice AI-powered assessment for your Blue Mountains City Council property takes seconds to run.
Why DAs get refused in Blue Mountains City Council
Grounds cited across 22 refused applications, read from the council's own notices of determination. Most recent determination indexed: August 2026. Most refusals cite several grounds at once, so these overlap.
Behind each ground above sits the verbatim paragraph the assessing officer wrote, the LEP and DCP clauses it was tested against, and the address and DA number so you can pull the notice yourself. 151 grounds across Blue Mountains City Council are indexed this way.
See the grounds in fullDevelopment type mix
What people are building in Blue Mountains City Council. Ranked by DA volume.
Development cost distribution
Estimated development cost ranges reported on Blue Mountains City Council DAs.
Blue Mountains City Council DAs — common questions
Answered from this council's own determinations. Where a council has not published a figure, the question is left out rather than guessed.
How many development applications does Blue Mountains City Council handle?
Plan Advice holds 4,954 development applications for Blue Mountains City Council, 1,666 of them lodged in the last 12 months. The figures on this page are counted from that register, not estimated.
How long does a DA take in Blue Mountains City Council?
The median assessment time is 84 days for FY25-26, after a median 29 days to get the application accepted for lodgement. That is the council's own reported figure from the NSW Planning Portal league tables, so it covers every DA they determined — not a sample.
Why are DAs refused in Blue Mountains City Council?
Across 22 refused applications, the grounds cited most often are streetscape / neighbourhood character incompatibility (13 refusals), contrary to the public interest (s4.15(1)(e)) (13 refusals), biodiversity, native vegetation or ecology (8 refusals). These are read from the council's own notices of determination, and most refusals cite several grounds at once.
What kinds of development are most common in Blue Mountains City Council?
The most frequent application types are alterations & additions (913), dual occupancy (301), subdivision (146).
How often is a clause 4.6 variation used in Blue Mountains City Council?
324 applications — 6.54% of the register — sought a clause 4.6 variation to a development standard.
Most recent development applications
Sampled from the NSW Planning Portal open-data feed.
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