Mosman voted 7 to 0 for 25 storey towers. Here is what was actually decided.

On 30 June, all seven Mosman councillors voted the same way on housing. Not one voted no, on a masterplan whose public exhibition drew a response so large that council extended the deadline.

At an extraordinary meeting, they endorsed a preferred masterplan for the Military Road and Spit Road corridor. The headline numbers: roughly 4,700 new homes and about 950,000 square metres of floor space, concentrated along one spine. That works out to roughly 200 square metres per home, so it very likely counts more than the apartments themselves. No breakdown has been published yet.

Here is where the height goes. Two 25-storey locations at Spit Junction, including the Bridgepoint centre. One 20-storey location and five at 18 storeys. Around 12 storeys along much of the rest of the corridor. The heights then step down at the edges: five to six storeys around Ourimbah Road and Bapaume Road, three storeys at Gouldsbury Street and Belmont Road.

Just as important is what the plan leaves out. The change area covers about 12 per cent of Mosman's developable land. The state policy it is designed to replace covers about 27 per cent. Heritage streets including Lang Street, Holt Avenue, Spencer Road and Cabramatta Road are excluded, along with the harbour slopes.

Why council did this

The masterplan is Mosman's counter-offer to the NSW Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy, the state rules that currently apply across about 27 per cent of the local government area. Council has said plainly that the state policy is "not a supportable option for Mosman". One condition shapes everything: the masterplan must deliver at least as many homes as the state policy would. Council cannot use its own plan to shrink the total. It can only move the height onto the corridor and away from the back streets.

What happens next, and when

Local reporting puts the next milestone at 7 August 2026, when technical reports, including a traffic study, are due back before council. That date comes from local reporting rather than the council minutes directly, so we treat it as reported until council confirms it. Traffic is the report to watch: Military Road already carries up to about 76,000 vehicles a day, and no traffic study was completed while the plan was being prepared.

After that, the planning proposal goes to the state for a Gateway Determination, then to formal public exhibition. Only after gazettal would any of this become law. Which means two things worth holding onto. Nothing endorsed on 30 June is approved: a 25-storey endorsement by council is a proposal, not a planning control. And until gazettal, the state's Low and Mid-Rise policy remains in force in Mosman. State approval of the masterplan is not guaranteed.

Meanwhile, the applications have not waited

Council's own register, updated 30 June, lists 15 applications lodged under the state policy, mostly residential flat buildings of four to nine storeys on consolidated house blocks. The scoreboard so far: one straight approval, a four-storey building of four units at 30 Muston Street. One deferred commencement consent at 27 to 29 Heydon Street. One refusal at 34 Redan Street, now under appeal. Eight matters are before the Land and Environment Court, seven of them as deemed refusal appeals, a procedural step available when council does not decide within the statutory timeframe. It is not a finding about the merits of any proposal.

A separate council list, also updated 30 June, shows eight projects that have moved to the state significant development pathway, decided by the state rather than council. That includes a proposal at 494 to 500 and 516 Military Road, eight storeys and about 107 apartments, declared state significant on 12 June. At 35 to 45 Awaba Street, the scoping report for a nine-storey, roughly 100-apartment proposal states the application would prevail over any existing and future applicable controls, with a proposed floor space ratio of 3.56 to 1 against the current 0.6 to 1.

In our view, that is the detail most coverage skips: the masterplan draws lines, but state pathways can cross them.

What this means if you own in Mosman

Three questions are worth answering now, whatever you intend to do. Which rules apply to your property today. Until gazettal, that is the state policy plus the existing local controls, not the masterplan. Which side of the line your street sits on under the endorsed plan, and at what height. And what the realistic timeline actually is: technical reports, Gateway Determination, exhibition and gazettal all sit between the 30 June vote and any new control taking effect.

Owning here does not oblige you to do anything. But there is no downside to knowing exactly where your property stands.