With a catchment of around 960 square kilometres that is home to 1.5 million residents, the Georges River is one of the most significant urban river systems in Australia.

While starting from fairly humble beginnings at its headwaters near Appin, the river dramatically changes shape before meeting Botany Bay, expanding to create an intricate network of bays and coves more resembling a coastal inlet than a river.

With Sydney’s increasing population, this has placed significant pressure on the river foreshores to accommodate increased development, which runs the risk of compromising the attributes of the river.

To address this issue, over the years, the Georges River Council (and its predecessor Councils) developed a comprehensive suite of local planning measures, including the Foreshore Building Line and the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area.

In 2018, Council embarked on a process of updating its two separate LEPs to better reflect current planning practices.

The purpose of the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area under the Georges River LEP is to protect the values of the foreshore.

Council proposed to expand the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area to include land in the former Kogarah LGA and introduce local character typologies to provide better protection for the two different but closely related concepts of valued scenic character and local character.

Council has also proposed to concurrently reduce the amount of land in the former Hurstville LGA contained within the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area.

If adopted, this would allow for less stringent development controls for typically smaller scale, lower impact developments, such as houses and duplexes.