RU2 Rural Landscape zoning in NSW

Rural zones in the NSW Standard Instrument LEP. Checked 26 September 2026.

RU2 Rural Landscape is the rural zone for land where the scenery matters as much as the farming. Its three objectives are sustainable primary industry, maintaining the rural landscape character of the land, and providing for a range of compatible uses including extensive agriculture. The Standard Instrument mandates extensive agriculture and home occupations without consent, aquaculture and dwelling houses with consent, and farm buildings, environmental protection works and roads with or without consent.

The list is shorter than RU1's. Intensive livestock and plant agriculture, extractive industries and open cut mining are not mandated in RU2, which is the practical difference: a council can keep them out of its scenic rural land while allowing them in RU1.

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What the Standard Instrument says

The objectives and uses every council LEP must carry for this zone, quoted from the Land Use Table. Blank items are left to the LEP.

Standard Instrument Land Use Table

Zone RU2 Rural Landscape

Rural land where the landscape character matters as much as production. Extensive agriculture continues alongside a range of compatible uses.

1 Objectives of zone

To encourage sustainable primary industry production by maintaining and enhancing the natural resource base.
To maintain the rural landscape character of the land.
To provide for a range of compatible land uses, including extensive agriculture.

Direction: the LEP must permit, with or without consent

Environmental protection works
Farm buildings
Roads

2 Permitted without consent

Extensive agriculture
Home occupations

3 Permitted only with consent

Aquaculture
Dwelling houses

4 Prohibited

Left to the council's LEP.

A council LEP adopts this entry and adds its own objectives, permitted uses and prohibited uses under the Land Use Table directions, so the LEP land use table for the land is the one that applies. Schedule 1 of the LEP, the Housing SEPP and the Codes SEPP can permit development the table does not.

What it means in practice

Where the common questions land, and which instrument decides each of them.

Dwelling houses

Permitted with consent in every RU2 LEP, usually subject to the same minimum lot size and dwelling entitlement clauses as RU1. The Rural Housing Code in the Codes SEPP applies to RU2 lots, so a new dwelling can be complying development on a lot of at least 4,000 m² where the standards are met.

Tourism and rural enterprises

Farm stay accommodation, cellar door premises, function centres and other rural tourism uses are not mandated but are commonly added by councils in RU2 precisely because of the landscape objective. Read the LEP table; each council draws the line differently.

Intensive agriculture

Not mandated in RU2. Where a council adds intensive livestock or plant agriculture, Chapter 2 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Primary Production) 2021 also applies.

Subdivision

Consent is required and the Lot Size Map minimum applies. RU2 minimums are often the same large figures used in RU1 because the landscape objective is served by keeping lots big.

Frequently asked questions

What does RU2 Rural Landscape zoning mean?

It is the Standard Instrument's rural zone for land whose landscape character the council wants to maintain alongside primary production. Extensive agriculture is permitted without consent and dwelling houses with consent; the council's LEP decides on intensive agriculture, tourism and other uses.

Can I build a house on RU2 land?

Dwelling houses are permitted with consent, but most RU2 LEPs limit them to lots that meet the minimum lot size or have a dwelling entitlement. The Rural Housing Code offers a complying development route on lots of at least 4,000 m² where a dwelling is permissible.

Is RU2 more restrictive than RU1?

For heavy uses, yes: RU2 does not mandate intensive agriculture, extractive industries or open cut mining. For housing and extensive agriculture the two zones are the same at the Standard Instrument level.

Can I run tourist accommodation on RU2 land?

Only if the council's LEP permits it. Farm stay accommodation, bed and breakfast accommodation and eco-tourist facilities are optional uses, and many RU2 LEPs include some of them because they suit the landscape objective.

Sources

Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Order 2006, current version for 1 July 2026 to date. Read on the NSW legislation website on 26 September 2026.

Other instruments

State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021, current version for 11 September 2026 to date; State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, current version for 11 September 2026 to date. Read on 26 September 2026. The translation of the former B and IN zones to the employment zones follows NSW Department of Planning guidance rather than the Standard Instrument text.

Other zones

How to read zoning, height and FSR maps in NSW

Know the zone.
Then read everything that sits over it.

Plynth answers site questions with every control linked to its source: the zone, the LEP land use table, the SEPPs that add to it and the standards on the other maps.

See planning due diligence in Plynth Back to the zoning explainer