Prepare Your Own Development Application Without a Town Planner

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY KEYWORDS

application, council, assessment, plans, form, template, details, site, subdivision, building, report, development, planning, section, property, run, require, reconfiguration, fees, relevant

SPEAKERS

Jessica Reynolds | JREY Managing Director

You do not need to be a professional private town planner to be able to prepare your own development application to then lodge with your local council, you can do it yourself.

I’m going to take you through the steps I would do as a town planner to prepare all the documentation that you need. By the end of the 40 minute video, you should be able to hack together your own DA and lodge it yourself.

There are six items you will need to collate and prepare in order for councils to actually be able to assess an application in Queensland.

Step 1: Owners Consent

The first item you’re going to need to tick off the list is the owner’s consent.

The purpose of owner’s consent is getting permission from the owner as per the property title search. This document gives permission to lodge the development application and states that the owner is actually aware of what is happening.

We don’t want people who don’t own the property lodging applications without property owners knowing. That could end in a lot of tears. We avoid that by getting the signatures of everyone who is needed.

You don’t necessarily need the hardcopy signature to be sent to council or to your planner or however you plan on loading your application.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on how to prepare owner’s consent.  

Step 2: Proposal Plans

Every development application in Queensland requires some form of proposal plans.

The State government actually dictates what needs to go in those plans depending on the type of application that you’re applying for, whether it’s an MCU or ROL, and the council then has the powers to decide whether the plans you have provided meet those requirements or not.

Most often than not, Queensland Councils are expecting a higher-level quality of plans than they were 10 years ago.

There are a few Councils with great online resources which will identify the plan requirements for that local government area.  They may refer to the size of the plan. They talk about site plans and joint boundaries natural features.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on what to include on your proposal plans.   

Step 3:Town Planning Assessment Report

This is where you’re going to be justifying the proposal against the relevant town planning legislation.

Not to be biased as a private town planner, but the most important part of collating your development application.

All applications need to include a planning report and that is universal for the state of Queensland. That’s because it’s dictated by the Planning Act 2016, which is the state legislation.

Some Council’s as per the example in the video provide a template town planning assessment report which you can use.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on how to prepare a town planning assessment report.

Step 4: State Forms

Every development application in Queensland will require at least one DA State form to be completed and lodged at the time of the application.

You will find these forms back on the QLD state government website. Some Councils have shortcuts through their planning portals. However, you can just go straight to the source, which is the template.

There’s so much information online now. If you want to do anything yourself a quick Google, it will give you the info.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on how to complete the State Development Assessment Forms.

Step 5: Council Forms

This is where you’ll need to take a little bit of action and find out what forms your particular council needs. We’ve been utilising Brisbane City Council for a while and you can follow the same process that I do in the guide, but every council will have different formats.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on how to find and complete Council development assessment forms.

Step 6: Council Fees

Council fees, also called development assessment fees are required for every development application in Queensland.

At the time of lodgement, most councils are going to require you to pay the assessment fee, every council will have a different process.

For most big Councils, they’ll actually take up to five business days to review your lodged documentation (from steps one to five), make sure that look right and then I’ll send you an invoice for the DA assessment fee.

Every Council in QLD has a schedule of fees and charges where you can find the associated fee. This will be available on their website.

If you have any troubles, you can always contact your relevant Council and just confirm before you wish to lodge an application.

The above is just a snippet of the guide – please watch the video for more details on how to find and pay the development assessment application fee.