Stirling Draftsman

Stirling Draftsman for City of Stirling Plans and Approvals

The City of Stirling does not simply apply the R-Codes and leave it there. It has its own local planning policy that rewrites five separate R-Codes clauses, its own fast-track approval service with a 28 day clock, and three suburbs where the standard rules are set aside entirely. A set of plans drawn to the state code alone will still get knocked back if it ignores what Stirling has written over the top of it.

This page sets out what actually changes inside the City of Stirling, so you know what your design has to satisfy before you pay anyone to draw it.

What a Stirling draftsman does on a City of Stirling application

Drafting for Stirling is mostly a compliance job. The drawing is the easy part. The work that decides whether your application is approved is knowing which of Stirling’s local variations apply to your lot, and drawing to those numbers from the start rather than redrawing after the assessment officer sends the letter.

For a City of Stirling project that means:

Checking the lot’s R-coding and whether it falls under R-Codes Volume 1 Part B or Part C, because Stirling’s fast-track service only accepts Part B
Checking whether the property sits in a Heritage Protection Area, on the Heritage List, or inside one of the five Strategic Planning Project Areas
Applying Local Planning Policy 6.15, which changes the boundary setback, outbuilding, outdoor living area and sight line rules
Producing a full deemed-to-comply assessment, which Stirling requires in digital form for any fast-track lodgement
Preparing the site plan, floor plans, elevations and sections to the standard the City’s submission checklist asks for

We draw architectural and planning documentation. We do not produce structural engineering drawings or electrical design, and you should be cautious of anyone offering both alongside drafting.

What “Stirling council approval” actually means

People use “council approval” to cover two or three separate things. They are assessed by different people under different legislation, and most projects do not need all of them.

A building permit. The construction approval under the Building Act 2011, covering structural adequacy, fire separation, energy efficiency and compliance with the National Construction Code. You will almost always need this one.

Development approval, also called planning approval or a DA. The planning assessment against the R-Codes, the local planning scheme and the council’s own local planning policies, covering siting, setbacks, height, bulk, open space and streetscape.

Here is the part that saves people time and money. On most smaller residential jobs, development approval is only needed where the design does not meet the deemed-to-comply provisions of the R-Codes. Draw a patio, shed or carport inside the numbers and you generally go straight to a building permit. Step outside them and you are asking for a variation, and the variation is what triggers the planning application.

A deemed-to-comply check. This is the step most people have never heard of. Where no development approval is needed, your building surveyor still needs evidence of that before issuing a certificate of design compliance. A number of WA councils run a formal written check for exactly this purpose, and some expect it before a building permit will proceed even where the design fully complies. Fees and turnarounds vary widely: the Town of Victoria Park charges $73, while the Town of Cambridge charges $295 for a new single house and $100 for additions, with a 14 day response. The City of Stirling runs one, with separate deemed-to-comply application forms for a single house and for a grouped dwelling.

One rule holds everywhere. Being exempt from development approval does not exempt you from a building permit.

City of Stirling local planning rules that change your design

Local Planning Policy 6.15, Exemption from Requiring Development Approval, is the document that matters most for residential work in Stirling. Council adopted it on 26 May 2020, the Western Australian Planning Commission approved it on 26 October 2021, and the current modified version took effect on 16 March 2022.

That WAPC approval date is not a formality. Clause 3.2.3a of the R-Codes lists the deemed-to-comply provisions a council may modify through a local planning policy on its own authority. Outbuildings and sight lines are on that list. The outdoor living area provision is not, and the lot boundary setback provision is on it only in part, covering C3.2 and C3.3 but not C3.1. Two of Stirling’s five changes reach past what a council can do alone, which is exactly why the policy went to the WAPC. Because it was approved, all five changes are operative.

Here is what they do.

Patios can be built to the boundary in Stirling

LPP 6.15 adds a new provision to R-Codes clause 5.1.3. For a patio, veranda or equivalent structure that is an addition to an existing dwelling, the lot boundary setbacks in Tables 1, 2a and 2b may be reduced to nil at the posts, provided the structure:

Has pillars and posts with a horizontal dimension of 450mm by 450mm or less
Is not more than 10m in length or 3.5m in height
Is located behind the primary street setback
Has eaves, gutters and roofs set back at least 450mm from the lot boundary

The 10m length cap is the one people trip over. A patio that runs the full width of a typical Stirling rear boundary will usually exceed it, and the moment it does, the nil setback concession falls away and you are back to the standard setback table or a formal variation.

Draw the gutter at 500mm, not 450mm. Stirling’s 450mm is a planning number. Fire separation is a separate question decided at building permit stage under the National Construction Code, and planning approval does nothing to satisfy it. Western Australia adopted NCC 2025 on 1 May 2026, which introduced WA Part 9.6 covering roofed outdoor areas, and it gives you two realistic routes:

900mm to the boundary, measured to the outermost structural projection and excluding the eave overhang, with no special material requirements
500mm to the boundary, measured to the outermost projection and including the eave overhang, but only with a package of extra requirements attached

A patio drawn to Stirling’s 450mm falls short of both. Draw the gutter at 500mm and the reduced separation route is open to you.

Be aware of what that route brings with it, because the 500mm figure gets quoted on its own far too often. It also requires two or more sides open and at least one third of the perimeter open, a non-combustible supporting structure (timber roof framing is allowed where it is fully concealed by non-combustible lining, roof cover, gutters and fascias), a polycarbonate or non-combustible roof covering, non-combustible ceiling lining and floor, no direct vertical support to the house, and a solid non-combustible screen at least 1500mm high running the full length of every side facing a boundary. If none of that suits the project, take the 900mm option instead and design the patio 400mm shorter.

Outbuildings get a taller wall in Stirling than the R-Codes allow

LPP 6.15 replaces the large and multiple outbuildings provision at R-Codes clause 5.4.3. In the City of Stirling, outbuildings are deemed to comply where they:

Individually or collectively do not exceed 60m2 in area, or 10 per cent in aggregate of the site area, whichever is the lesser
Are set back in accordance with Table 2a
Do not exceed a wall height of 3.0m
Do not exceed a ridge height of 4.2m
Are not located within the primary or secondary street setback area
Do not reduce the open space and outdoor living area requirements in Table 1

The 3.0m wall height is the useful one. Every other figure in that list is identical to the R-Codes deemed-to-comply provision at Part B 5.4.3. The only thing Stirling changed is the wall height, lifting it from 2.4m to 3.0m, which brings it into line with what the R-Codes already allow on medium density lots under Part C.

That extra 600mm is the difference between a shed you can fit a caravan or a boat on a trailer into, and one you cannot. In most Perth councils that height needs a variation and a design principles argument. In Stirling it is deemed to comply.

Boundary walls on lots coded R30 and above

LPP 6.15 replaces clause 5.1.3 C3.2(iii). In areas coded R30 and higher, boundary walls may be built up to 3.5m high for two-thirds the length of the site boundary behind the front setback, to any number of site boundaries. That last phrase matters. Many councils limit you to one boundary. Stirling does not, subject to the overshadowing provisions at clause 5.4.2.

One third of your outdoor living area has to stay uncovered

This is the single most common reason a Stirling patio application gets a request for amended plans. LPP 6.15 adds clause 5.3.1 C1.3: where a patio is an addition to an existing dwelling, the outdoor living area must be provided in accordance with Table 1, behind the street setback area, directly accessible from the primary living space of the dwelling, with a minimum length and width dimension of 4m, and with at least one third of the required area without permanent roof cover.

Homeowners routinely design a patio that roofs the entire usable backyard. In Stirling that fails, regardless of how well the setbacks work.

Sight lines at the driveway

LPP 6.15 replaces the sight line provisions at clause 5.2.5. Development must be no higher than 0.75m above natural ground level within 1.5m of where a driveway meets a street or where two streets intersect. Fencing in that same 1.5m truncation may be up to 1.8m high, but only with no more than one support pier of maximum 350mm horizontal dimension, and no more than two panels including any sliding or swinging gate, using open style pickets at a 1:10 spacing ratio. A 10mm picket needs a 100mm gap to the next one.

If you are planning a solid rendered pier and gate arrangement at the crossover, this provision will catch it.

The Stirling Fast-Track service and how to qualify for it

Stirling runs an opt-in Fast-Track Development Applications service that most other Perth councils do not offer. The published timeframes are:

Application type	Determination timeframe
No referrals to external agencies	28 calendar days from pre-lodgement submission
Requires external referral, for example Main Roads WA	50 calendar days from pre-lodgement submission
Amended plans resubmitted after a Lodgement Ready Letter	21 days

Against a standard development application clock, that is a meaningful saving.

To use it you have to register an expression of interest first, and you have to submit a digital planning assessment of the application through the City’s online portal. If you cannot or will not provide the digital assessment, the application reverts to a standard development application. This is the part that decides whether fast-track is available to you, and it is the part a homeowner drawing their own plans usually cannot produce.

What can be fast-tracked

Only residential applications assessed against R-Codes Volume 1 Part B Low Density are eligible:

Single house, and additions to a single house
One grouped dwelling, two grouped dwellings, and additions to a grouped dwelling
Garage, carport, outbuilding, patio
Ancillary dwelling
Retaining walls, front fence

Stirling will also consider deemed-to-comply variations through the fast-track path, including street setback, lot boundary setback, open space, building height, setback of garages and carports, garage width, street surveillance, street walls and fences, sight lines and outdoor living areas.

What Stirling will not fast-track

Anything assessed under R-Codes Volume 1 Part C
Anything inside the Heritage Protection Area covering Inglewood, Menora and Mount Lawley
Variations to minimum or average lot areas that need WAPC subdivision approval
Unauthorised works, meaning any development that has already commenced or been carried out
Anything inside the Stirling City Centre, Herdsman Glendalough Structure Plan Area, Mirrabooka Town Centre Activity Plan Area, Scarborough Beach Road West Local Development Plan Area, or the Neighbourhood Centres Local Development Plan Area

The City publishes a list of Accredited Fast-Track Applicants who have obtained approval through the service. It is a short list, eleven firms at last update, and being on it is not a requirement to use the service.

When you do not need development approval in the City of Stirling

LPP 6.15 also sets out works that are exempt from requiring development approval, provided the lot is not affected by the Heritage Act 2018, is not on the City of Stirling Heritage List, is not in a Heritage Protection Area, does not require referral under the Metropolitan Region Scheme Instrument of Delegation, and is not subject to the bushfire requirements of the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015.

Where all of that holds, no development approval is needed for:

Grouped dwelling development resulting in no more than two dwellings on a parent lot, where it meets Local Planning Scheme No. 3, the local planning framework and every deemed-to-comply provision of the R-Codes
Additions or alterations to a grouped dwelling on the same fully compliant basis
Alterations to front facades of non-residential components where building height is not increased and street alignment shifts by no more than 300mm
Transportable containers on site for no more than nine consecutive days in total over a twelve month period

The exemption for two grouped dwellings is worth understanding properly. It only holds if the design meets every deemed-to-comply provision. A single variation, anywhere in the design, puts you back into a full development application.

Heritage Protection Areas: Mount Lawley, Menora and Inglewood

If your property is in Mount Lawley, Menora or Inglewood, the rules above largely do not help you. These suburbs sit within a Heritage Protection Area and are governed by Local Planning Policy 3.1 Character Retention Guidelines Mount Lawley and Menora, or Local Planning Policy 3.1A Character Retention Guidelines Inglewood.

In practical terms this means the LPP 6.15 development approval exemptions do not apply, the fast-track service is not available, and the design will be assessed against character retention criteria covering roof form, materials, street facade and setbacks rather than against the deemed-to-comply provisions alone. Applications in these suburbs take longer and need more design justification.

The City also maintains a Significant Tree Register under Local Planning Policy 6.17, adopted 15 October 2024, and a policy at 6.5 covering development abutting rights of way. Stirling has a lot of laneway-served lots in the older suburbs, and a right of way changes both your setbacks and your vehicle access options.

Stirling drafting services

Project type	What we prepare
Second storey additions	Full working drawings, site plan, elevations, sections
New single houses	Concept design through to council submission documentation
Renovations and extensions	Existing and proposed plans, demolition plan
Patios and outdoor areas	Plans drawn to LPP 6.15 with the outdoor living area calculation
Outbuildings and sheds	Plans to the Stirling 3.0m wall height provision
Carports and garages	Setback and garage width assessment against Table 1
Ancillary dwellings	Plans and area calculations for the 70m2 limit
Retaining walls and front fences	Plans including sight line truncation

Stirling projects and what they teach you

Second storey additions are a large part of our City of Stirling workload, across suburbs like Doubleview, Hamersley and Scarborough, including overflow documentation for Perth builders who specialise in second storey work. They raise the same three questions every time: building height against clause 5.1.6, overshadowing of the southern neighbour, and whether the existing footings and structure can carry the load. The first two are drafting problems. The third needs an engineer, and we will tell you when you need one.

The patio and outbuilding work in Stirling follows a different pattern. Because LPP 6.15 is more generous than the state code on both, the design usually works. What catches people is the outdoor living area calculation, because roofing the whole backyard fails no matter how good the setbacks are.

A Stirling homeowner described the outcome on a design that went past the standard allowances:

> We used Perth Drafting for our new house design in Stirling and were really happy with how it all went. Kyle helped us with the DA planning application and council approval drawings and he handled the council side of things for us. The design changes we requested made the house a bit bigger than what normally fits within the standard R-Code rules, so we were expecting the approval process to be a headache and we were very happy that Kyle got it approved.

> Celeste Baker, Google review

What a City of Stirling development application costs

The application fee is set by state regulation, not by Stirling, so it is the same at every WA council. It is calculated on the estimated cost of the development:

Estimated cost of development	Application fee
Not more than $50,000	$147
$50,001 to $500,000	0.32% of the estimated cost
$500,001 to $2.5 million	$1,700 plus 0.257% of the amount above $500,000
Written planning advice	$73
Amending or cancelling an approval	$295

If the work has already commenced or been carried out, the fee is the figure above plus a penalty of twice that fee, so three times the normal amount. On a $120,000 addition that is the difference between $384 and $1,152, before any of the other costs of a retrospective application.

Our own drafting fee is quoted per project rather than by a rate card, because a flat block with a straightforward design and a sloping laneway lot in Mount Lawley are not the same job. As a rough guide only, a patio or outbuilding submission sits at the lower end, a renovation or addition in the middle, and a new house or second storey at the upper end. We give you a fixed figure before we start.

How long the drawings take

We are one of the quicker drafting practices in Perth, and we would rather tell you that plainly than quote a number we cannot stand behind.

Turnaround depends on what is being drawn. A patio or a shed is not a second storey addition, and a straightforward flat block is not a sloping site with an existing dwelling to survey and match into. Anyone quoting you a fixed timeframe before seeing the scope is guessing.

What we do is give you a realistic date once we have seen the project, and then keep to it. If we cannot hit something you need, we say so before you commit rather than after.

It is also worth knowing that on most jobs the drafting is not the long pole. The parts that usually set the overall timeline are:

The council clock, which is set by regulation rather than by us
Third party reports, such as a Bushfire Attack Level assessment, an arborist report or engineering certification, each of which has its own lead time
Decisions, meaning how quickly changes come back once you have the first draft in front of you

Those are the things worth planning around, and we will tell you which of them apply to your project at the start.

Draftsman services by Stirling suburb

The City of Stirling covers 30 suburbs and more than 100 square kilometres, from Dianella in the east to Trigg in the west, and Hamersley in the north down to Mount Lawley in the south. We work across all of them, and the local framework is not uniform, so where your lot sits changes what you can do.

Suburb	What changes there
Scarborough draftsman	Parts of Scarborough sit in the Scarborough Redevelopment Area, and the Scarborough Beach Road West Local Development Plan Area is excluded from fast-track
Mount Lawley, Menora and Inglewood draftsman	Heritage Protection Area under LPP 3.1 and 3.1A, character retention assessment, no fast-track, no LPP 6.15 exemptions
Yokine, Dianella and Nollamara draftsman	Large stock of R30 and above lots, so the two-thirds boundary wall provision and Part C thresholds come into play
Doubleview, Innaloo and Karrinyup draftsman	Second storey addition territory, building height and overshadowing drive the design
Osborne Park and Herdsman draftsman	Herdsman Glendalough Structure Plan Area is excluded from fast-track
Mirrabooka draftsman	Mirrabooka Town Centre Activity Plan Area is excluded from fast-track
Trigg, North Beach and Watermans Bay draftsman	Coastal exposure drives wind classification and material selection at building permit stage
Balcatta, Balga, Westminster and Tuart Hill draftsman	Older stock, ancillary dwellings and outbuildings are the common work
Churchlands, Woodlands, Wembley Downs and Gwelup draftsman	Larger lots, outbuildings benefit most from the 3.0m wall height
Carine, Hamersley, Coolbinia, Glendalough, Joondanna, Menora, Stirling and Wembley draftsman	Standard Part B assessment in most cases

The City’s administration centre is at 25 Cedric Street, Stirling, open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm, and the planning enquiries line is (08) 9205 8555.

Stirling draftsman questions

Can I build a patio to the boundary in the City of Stirling?

Yes, in most cases. Stirling’s Local Planning Policy 6.15 allows the lot boundary setback to be reduced to nil at the posts for a patio that is an addition to an existing dwelling, where the posts are 450mm square or smaller, the structure is no more than 10m long and 3.5m high, it sits behind the primary street setback, and the eaves, gutters and roof are at least 450mm off the boundary. That last figure only gets you through planning. We draw the gutter at 500mm so the design also has a route through the fire separation provisions at building permit stage.

How long does a City of Stirling development application take?

Through the Fast-Track service, 28 calendar days from pre-lodgement submission where no external referral is needed, or 50 days where a referral to an agency such as Main Roads is required. A standard development application runs on the statutory clock instead, and applications requiring advertising or sitting in a Heritage Protection Area take longer again.

Do I need development approval for a shed in Stirling?

If the outbuilding meets Stirling’s deemed-to-comply provisions, which are 60m2 or 10 per cent of the site area whichever is lesser, a 3.0m wall height, a 4.2m ridge height, setbacks per Table 2a, outside the street setback areas, and without eating into your required open space and outdoor living area, then it is assessed as deemed to comply and no development approval is needed. Note that Stirling’s 3.0m wall height is 600mm more than the R-Codes default of 2.4m, so a shed that would need a variation elsewhere may not need one here. You will still need a building permit separately, and an enclosed shed is assessed under different fire separation rules to an open patio.

What happens if I already built it?

Stirling will not accept unauthorised works through the fast-track service, so it goes through as a standard development application, and the fee is three times the normal amount. The application still has to demonstrate compliance, and if the structure does not comply as built, the options are amendment, a formal variation, or removal.

Is Mount Lawley treated differently from the rest of Stirling?

Yes. Mount Lawley, Menora and Inglewood sit in a Heritage Protection Area with their own character retention guidelines. The development approval exemptions in LPP 6.15 do not apply, the fast-track service is not available, and your design is assessed against character criteria as well as the R-Codes.