Can both dwellings share a driveway?
Yes. Both dwellings in a dual occupancy can share a driveway, provided the driveway, parking and vehicle-access arrangement meets the applicable planning requirements.
The Missing Middle Housing Design Guide specifically recognises dual occupancy as multi-occupancy housing and refers to common landscaping where there is a shared driveway.
Under the Residential Zones Technical Specifications, the driveway and parking arrangement must also address requirements including:
- Required car parking: the required number of parking spaces must be provided for the dwellings.
- Parking location: parking must comply with the rules about where spaces can be located on the block.
- Tandem parking: spaces can be in tandem only where they belong to the same dwelling. This is important—a shared driveway does not mean one dwelling's required parking space can be trapped behind the other dwelling's parking space.
- Property boundaries: parking spaces must not encroach across property boundaries.
- Safe driveway design: Specification 27.4 requires verge crossings and internal driveways to be designed for safe use by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, including consideration of vehicle-speed reduction measures.
- Garage/carport presentation: where garages or carports face a street, their openings are also subject to applicable streetscape controls.
The overall arrangement must therefore provide compliant vehicle access, parking and safe movement, even though the physical driveway itself may be shared.
Reference: Planning (Residential Zones) Technical Specifications 2026 (NI2026-303) – https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/View/ni/2026-303/current/PDF/2026-303.PDF & ACT Missing Middle Housing Design Guide – 3.1B Multi-Occupancy – ACT Missing Middle Housing Design Guide
Short Answer
Yes. Both dwellings can share a driveway. However, the development must still provide the required parking and safe vehicle access, and tandem parking is only permitted where the tandem spaces belong to the same dwelling.
Detailed Explanation
Yes. A shared driveway is contemplated for dual-occupancy development. The Missing Middle Housing Design Guide, 3.1B Multi-Occupancy, identifies dual occupancy as a form of multi-occupancy housing and expressly refers to common landscaping associated with a shared driveway.
The access and parking arrangement must nevertheless satisfy the applicable Territory Plan and Residential Zones Technical Specifications. In particular, Assessment Outcome 27 requires vehicle and bicycle parking to sufficiently cater for the development while minimising visual impacts from streets and public spaces. The associated specifications regulate the number and location of parking spaces, tandem parking and driveway safety.
Specification 27.3 provides, among other things, that tandem parking is permitted only where the spaces belong to the same dwelling, while Specification 27.4 requires verge crossings and internal driveways to be designed for safe use by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
No minimum block size does not remove the need for planning assessment.
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