Wollongong council proposes permitting hotels and motels, with consent, in its general and low density residential zones; the state's gateway says it should proceed, subject to conditions

What would change in residential zones

Under the Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009, hotel and motel accommodation is, in the words of the council's 2025 Tourism Accommodation Strategy, currently a permissible land use in the E1 Local Centre, E2 Commercial Centre, MU1 Mixed Use, SP3 Tourist zones. The planning proposal (PP-2026-1382) would add it to the uses permitted with consent in two residential zones: R1 General Residential, which the strategy says sits around the city centre in Wollongong and North Wollongong, and R2 Low Density Residential. The definition covers a building that provides temporary or short-term accommodation on a commercial basis, in rooms or self-contained suites. Bed and breakfasts, which the strategy says are already permitted in both zones, are a separate use.

Permitted with consent means a development application, assessed on its merits. The strategy puts it this way: Merit based development assessment process will assess site suitability of any proposals. What the proposal adds on top is a bonus. Its possible clause wording offers extra height and floor space to hotel or motel developments that demonstrate design excellence in accordance with clause 7.18 of the plan, and says a building may exceed that permissible by clause 4.3 by an amount, to be determined by the consent authority, up to the amount specified in its table.

The proposed bonuses for hotel or motel accommodation, zone by zone

Maximum extra height and floor space ratio a consent authority could allow, for developments that demonstrate design excellence. Planning proposal PP-2026-1382, section 2.2.

Zone	Height bonus, up to	Floor space ratio bonus, up to
R1 General Residential	8 m (2 storeys)	0.5:1
R2 Low Density Residential	4 m (1 storey)	0.5:1
R3 Medium Density	8 m (2 storeys)	0.5:1
E1 Local Centre	8 m (2 storeys)	0.5:1
E2 Commercial Centre, outside the Wollongong City Centre	30% of mapped height	Nil under 50 rooms; 0.5:1 for 50 to 100 rooms; 1:1 for 101 to 200; 1.5:1 over 200
E3 Productivity Support	30% of mapped height	0.5:1
MU1 Mixed Use, outside the Wollongong City Centre	30% of mapped height	0.5:1
SP3 Tourist	12 m (3 storeys)	1:1
RE1 Public Recreation	8 m (2 storeys)	0.5:1
RE2 Private Recreation	4 m (1 storey)	Nil
C2 and C3 environmental zones, where permitted as an additional use	4 m (1 storey)	Nil

For a low density lot, the strategy's own table gives the existing controls as a floor space ratio of 0.5:1 and a height of 9 metres. On those figures, a hotel or motel granted the full bonus could reach 13 metres and a ratio of 1:1, twice the floor space ratio (our arithmetic).

Low density land: the height the strategy lists, and the most the bonus could add

Why the council wants it

The proposal implements the council's Tourism Accommodation Strategy, adopted on 24 February 2025. Its first stated aim is to Reduce the loss of existing hotel and motel developments which are being out-competed and replaced by residential apartment buildings. Its third is new hotel and motel accommodation, especially in the city centre, to host larger sporting and cultural events. The strategy says Wollongong is lacking a 5 or 6 star hotel facility which is considered a significant gap in the market that supports corporate visitation.

The residential change answers a narrower problem, which the council's 20 April report sets out: Many older motels are located in the R1 and R2 zones, where the land use is no longer permissible. This increases the complexity of lodging development applications for additions and alterations.

The Tourism Accommodation Review and Strategy found that seven existing motels were located in the R1 General Residential and R2 Low Density Residential zones, where the “hotel or motel accommodation” land use was not permitted. One of the venues has since closed and been demolished.

The accommodation the council counts, and what was moving in April

The stock, February 2025

Tourist accommodation establishments

67, with an estimated 1,845 rooms for over 5,376 guests

Cabins

211, for 1,179 guests

Caravan and camping sites

269 powered and 122 unpowered

Registered short-term rentals

792 premises, under 1 per cent of dwellings

In the pipeline, as at 20 April 2026

Under construction

107 hotel rooms in a mixed-use development at 22 Kenny Street, Wollongong

State significant applications

A 204 room hotel on the Crown Plaza block, exhibited; a 150 room hotel at 4-4A Flinders Street, North Wollongong, being prepared

Under assessment, the other way

Demolition of the Boat Harbour Motel at 3-7 Wilson Street for apartments: If approved, this will reduce accommodation by 42 rooms.

The council's planning panel, the Wollongong Local Planning Panel, considered the proposal on 28 August 2025 and supported it with refinements. It added a suggestion for the residential zones, quoted in the April report: The Panel encourages Council to prepare appropriate DCP provisions to support hotel and motel developments that would be permitted by the land use amendments proposed in the Residential zones particularly in relation to setbacks and building separation to adjoining land uses, to assist in protecting adjoining residential amenity. Neither the April report nor its attached summary of the amendments says whether the council will. The only changes to the development control plan that the strategy lists are parking rates, which the council adopted in May 2025.

The department's gateway report makes the comparison with its neighbour to the north: Other LEP’s, such as Newcastle already allow Tourism Accommodation in residential zones. We have not checked Newcastle's plan ourselves.

The sites that change zone

The rest of the proposal is site by site. Three existing accommodation businesses on environmental land, which the proposal says operate under existing use rights, would have their use recognised. Seven parcels zoned SP3 Tourist, where the proposal says tourism uses are unlikely or inappropriate, would be wholly or partly rezoned, and two escarpment lookouts on Crown land would have their zone boundaries redrawn.

Site-specific changes in the proposal

Site	Now	Proposed
Tumbling Waters, 31 Stonehaven Road, Stanwell Tops	C2 Environmental Conservation	SP3 Tourist, 12 m height limit
Tops Conference Centre, 48 and 51 Bendena Gardens, Stanwell Tops	C2 and C3	Hotel or motel accommodation on the C3 land as an additional use, limit 116 rooms and 613 guests
Govinda Retreat, 51 Lady Carrington Road, Otford	C2 and C3	Hotel or motel accommodation on the C3 land as an additional use, limit 20 rooms and 64 guests
Carters Lane, Fairy Meadow (Lot 2 DP 1150670)	SP3 Tourist	R3 Medium Density Residential
47-51 Princes Highway, West Wollongong	SP3 Tourist	E1 Local Centre, with the rear by the watercourse C3
53-59 Princes Highway, West Wollongong	SP3 Tourist	Rear by the watercourse to C3
1-3 Princes Highway, Figtree	SP3 Tourist	E1 Local Centre
5-7 Princes Highway, Figtree	SP3 Tourist	R3 Medium Density Residential
9 Princes Highway, Figtree, council-owned, part of Figtree Oval	SP3 Tourist	RE1 Public Recreation
Woodrow Place, Figtree, road reserve	SP3 Tourist	E3 Productivity Support
Hopetoun Park and Cliffhanger Café, Bulli Pass Scenic Reserve	SP3 and C2	Southern park area SP3; northern bushland stays C2
Sublime Point and Lady Fuller Park, Bulli Tops	SP3 and C1	Crown land the council manages to SP3; National Parks land to C1

Tumbling Waters was the one point of contest when councillors voted on 20 April (minutes, item 7). Councillor Anthony moved, seconded by Councillor Docker, that the site stay environmental (C3), with the accommodation as a site-specific additional use and a 9 metre height limit. That amendment was lost three votes to ten, Councillors Anthony, Docker and Stuart in favour. The motion to prepare the proposal and seek a gateway determination then carried twelve votes to one, Councillor Anthony against.

When residents get a say

The gateway determination, signed by a director of the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure as the Minister's delegate, says the amendment should proceed subject to the following, with the council as the local plan-making authority. The council must consult the NSW Rural Fire Service prior to public exhibition, give each agency it consults (the Rural Fire Service, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Development Coordination Authority) at least 30 working days to comment, and exhibit the proposal for a minimum of 20 working days. The council itself resolved on a minimum of 28 days. No public hearing is required. The plan should be completed on or before 10 August 2027.

The proposal's path, and the dates still ahead

1. 24 February 2025Council adopts the Tourism Accommodation Strategy.
2. 28 August 2025Wollongong Local Planning Panel supports the proposal with refinements.
3. 20 April 2026Council votes 12 to 1 to prepare the proposal and seek a gateway determination.
4. 7 July 2026The department receives the proposal.
5. 10 August 2026Gateway determination: should proceed, on conditions, Rural Fire Service consultation before exhibition.
6. September 2026Target in the council's indicative timeline: public exhibition. Not open as at 9 October.
7. November 2026Target: consideration of submissions.
8. February 2027Target: final council decision.
9. June 2027Target: plan amendment notified.
10. 10 August 2027Deadline in the gateway determination for completing the plan.

As at 9 October 2026 the proposal is not on the Planning Portal's list of proposals on exhibition for Wollongong, and the Let's Talk Wollongong projects listing has no page for it. The portal lists it as pre-exhibition, at the gateway implementation stage. When the exhibition opens, we will report its dates and whether the exhibited version adds any controls for hotels in residential streets.

Our read

This is opinion, built on the documents above. Letting the motels already in residential zones apply for upgrades without leaning on existing use rights is sensible, and a city that wants overnight visitors should not let its older motels quietly become apartments by default. But the problem the council describes is seven motels, one now gone, and the fix covers every R1 and R2 lot in the city. The strategy did weigh a narrower route, rezoning those sites to SP3 Tourist, and records that it was not supported by representatives at a May 2024 roundtable; and the department's report notes that ministerial direction 1.4 is there to discourage over restrictive site specific planning controls, the kind of control used at Tops and Govinda. So the wide route has reasons. The bonus is the part that needs more care. On the strategy's figures a hotel on low density land could be allowed up to 13 metres and twice the floor space ratio the strategy lists for the zone, and the planning panel asked for setback and separation rules to protect the houses next door. Nothing in the April report or its summary supplies those rules. Residents reading the exhibition should look first for them, and if they are not there, say so in a submission.

Sources

1. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Tourism Accommodation, PP-2026-1382, NSW Planning Portal, and its under-exhibition list filtered to Wollongong, read 9 October 2026: stage, date of determination, the attached documents below, and no Wollongong proposal on exhibition.
2. Wollongong City Council, Ordinary Meeting of Council, 20 April 2026, item 7, Public Exhibition, Tourism Accommodation Planning Proposal, with attachment 1, read 9 October 2026: the accommodation stock, the pipeline, the Local Planning Panel's advice, the seven motels, the bonus table and the site-specific changes.
3. Wollongong City Council, Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting, 20 April 2026, extract, item 7, read 9 October 2026: the resolution, the lost amendment and both votes.
4. Wollongong City Council, Planning Proposal, Tourism Accommodation (attachment A as sent for gateway), read 9 October 2026: the intended outcomes, the definition, the possible clause wording, the bonus table, the City Centre exhibition dates and the indicative timeline.
5. Wollongong City Council, Tourism Accommodation Strategy, 2025, read 9 October 2026: the zones that permit hotels now, the R1 location, bed and breakfasts, the R2 controls in its table, merit assessment, the SP3 option and the roundtable, the five star gap and the DCP parking changes.
6. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Gateway determination, PP-2026-1382, 10 August 2026, read 9 October 2026: the conditions, consultation periods and the 10 August 2027 completion date.
7. NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Gateway determination report, PP-2026-1382, Tourism Accommodation, Wollongong LGA, August 2026, read 9 October 2026: the date received, the ministerial directions and the Newcastle comparison.
8. Wollongong City Council, Let's Talk Wollongong, projects, read 9 October 2026: no exhibition page for the proposal.

Spotted an error, or read these documents differently? Tell us and we will check it against the documents and log the outcome here.