Introduction

Town planning is the most critical step in the development process. Until your town planning permit can be approved, your development cannot proceed. Gaining a town planning permit can often be a confusing, expensive and drawn-out process.

Here at NS Town Planning, we pride ourselves on the quality, and above all, the speed of our town planning applications.

Nearly a decade of experience with permit applications has helped us refine the process to a point where we can provide council with exactly what they need from the very start, avoiding extra cost and delays in the process further down the track.

Our dedicated town planning team will treat your application as if it was their own and look forward to providing your next development project with a smooth path through the permit application process.

What is town Planning Permit?

A town planning permit certifies that:

• Your proposed land use is in a suitable location
• New and existing buildings do not interfere with each other
• Your development won’t harm the environment
• There is a degree of harmony between the character and scale of your proposed development and the existing surrounding buildings
• Any heritage buildings or land are preserved and/or respected

These elements are taken into account by the responsible authority (in most cases this is the relevant local council, or VCAT if a situation cannot be resolved with council) during every application. Certain elements are given more weight and other specific regulations may need to be adhered to, depending on the zoning of your site and any overlays or restrictions that may be applicable to the land.

The following is a simplified version of the standard town planning process:

A town planning application is submitted to council with a combination of architectural drawings and written reports. It is council’s task to assess the application and determine if more information or changes are required. Once council is satisfied with the information provided, the proposed development needs to be advertised to the development site’s immediate neighbors. The purpose of advertising is to allow anyone from the public to submit objections to the proposal, which are also considered by the responsible authority as a part of the application.

Following advertising and consideration of any objections (depending on the number of objections the application may need to be discussed at a council meeting but this is not common), a council decision will be made along with a set of conditions. These conditions are then used as a base for all following processes (i.e. subdivision and construction). The development’s end result must meet all of these conditions otherwise a “Statement Of Compliance” will not be issued by council.

Once a town planning permit is obtained it does not expire and is always associated with the land (although, often conditions state that a certain amount of construction must begin before a certain date in order to avoid the permit lapsing). However the planning permit is the key document and once obtained, all following steps are generally a matter of formality.

We provide Town Planning in following suburbs of Melbourne:

• Newport
• Wyndham
• Werribee
• Tarneit

• Altona
• Altona Meadows
• Point Cook