Randwick’s New DCP: Landscape Plans Now Need to Show Cut and Fill
Randwick City Council has adopted its new Development Control Plan. For landscape plans, one of the changes worth knowing about is the requirement to clearly show existing and finished levels, including the extent of proposed cut and fill.
If you prepare Development Applications in Randwick, this is a small change to the landscape documentation requirements that is worth paying attention to.
Randwick DCP 2025 – Stage 2 commenced on 27 July 2026, following Council’s comprehensive review of the previous DCP. The new DCP replaces most of the relevant provisions of the 2013 DCP, including an updated Part B4 – Landscaping and Biodiversity.
For landscape architects and designers, one of the practical changes is particularly relevant:
Landscape plans are required to identify existing levels and finished levels, indicating the extent of cut and fill.
What does this mean for a landscape DA plan?
It means that in Randwick, a landscape plan should do more than simply illustrate where the lawn, planting, paving and retaining walls are proposed.
The plan needs to communicate how the proposed landscape design relates to the existing topography and what changes are proposed to the ground plane.
Depending on the project, that may mean showing:
Existing spot levels
Proposed finished levels
Changes in level across the site
Areas of cut and fill
Retaining walls
Steps and level changes
Terraces and raised garden areas
Finished levels around buildings and structures
The relationship between proposed levels and adjoining properties
This is particularly important on sloping sites, where relatively small changes in levels can have significant consequences for retaining walls, drainage, privacy, accessibility and the relationship between neighbouring properties.
Why is Council asking for this?
Landscape design is fundamentally about shaping the space between buildings. On a sloping site, that inevitably involves decisions about levels.
A plan showing only the proposed planting and surface treatments doesn’t necessarily tell Council how the landscape will actually be constructed.
For example, a proposed lawn area might look relatively straightforward in plan. But if the finished lawn is significantly higher than the existing ground, the proposal could require retaining, imported fill, drainage infrastructure or changes to neighbouring interfaces.
Showing the existing and proposed levels makes these changes visible as part of the DA assessment.
It also gives Council a clearer picture of whether the proposal is responding appropriately to the site’s existing topography.
It’s not just a survey requirement
Randwick Council’s general DA guidance already requires relevant levels and contours to be shown on plans and elevations, with levels referenced to Australian Height Datum (AHD). Council also identifies a landscape plan as a required document for new buildings, excluding outbuildings.
The new B4 requirement makes the expectation more explicit for the landscape plan itself.
That’s an important distinction.
The landscape plan shouldn’t simply rely on the architectural drawings or survey to communicate the site’s levels. Where the landscape proposal changes the ground plane, those changes should be represented in the landscape documentation.
In other words, levels are now part of the landscape design story, not just background survey information.
What should you include on a Randwick landscape plan?
There isn’t necessarily a need to turn every landscape plan into a civil engineering drawing.
The level of information should be appropriate to the project.
For a relatively flat site with minimal earthworks, a handful of existing and proposed spot levels may be sufficient to clearly communicate the proposal.
For a steep or highly modified site, more information may be necessary.
A good starting point is to make sure the landscape plan clearly communicates:
1. Existing levels
Show enough existing levels to establish the site’s current topography and provide a clear basis for understanding the proposed changes.
2. Finished levels
Identify the proposed finished levels of relevant landscape areas.
These might include lawns, terraces, paving, garden areas, pool surrounds, paths and other significant elements.
3. Cut and fill
Where the proposal changes existing ground levels, make the extent of those changes clear.
This doesn’t necessarily mean producing a detailed earthworks schedule. Rather, the landscape documentation should allow the assessment officer to understand where the ground is being raised or lowered and by approximately how much.
4. Retaining and level transitions
Retaining walls, steps, terraces and other structures used to accommodate level changes should be coordinated with the proposed finished levels.
5. Coordination
Perhaps most importantly, the landscape levels need to agree with the architectural, survey, civil and drainage information.
A landscape plan showing one finished level while the architectural plans show another is going to create more questions rather than answer them.
Sloping sites are where this becomes particularly important
Randwick has plenty of sites where topography is a significant part of the design response.
On these projects, the landscape plan can play an important role in demonstrating that the proposal isn’t simply filling or cutting the site to achieve a convenient flat platform.
The relationship between the house, garden, retaining walls and neighbouring properties can be clearly communicated through the landscape levels.
This can also help demonstrate that the landscape design is responding to the site’s existing conditions rather than treating the site as a blank canvas.
What does this mean for architects?
If you’re preparing a DA in Randwick, it’s worth getting the landscape documentation involved early enough for levels to be coordinated.
The landscape architect or landscape designer will need access to reliable survey information, architectural levels and enough information about proposed structures and drainage to develop a meaningful landscape response.
This is particularly important where the project includes:
Significant excavation
New retaining walls
Pools
Split-level buildings
Terraced gardens
Raised decks
Substantial changes to the rear yard
Changes near side or rear boundaries
Trying to resolve these issues at the very end of the DA documentation process can create unnecessary coordination problems.
A small change with a practical impact
The new requirement isn’t particularly complicated, but it reinforces something that good landscape documentation should already be doing: showing how the proposed landscape sits within the existing site.
For relatively simple sites, this may require only a few additional levels.
For more complex sites, however, it means the landscape plan needs to be considered as part of the overall site-level strategy rather than simply a planting and finishes plan.
With Randwick DCP 2025 now in effect, it’s worth checking your landscape documentation against the new requirements before lodging your next DA.
The takeaway: if your landscape proposal changes the site’s levels, make those changes clear. Show the existing levels, show the finished levels, and make the extent of cut and fill understandable from the landscape plan.
That makes the design easier for Council to assess—and gives everyone involved a much clearer understanding of what is actually being proposed.
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