• Pre-Lodgement – this is not a formal part of the assessment process but may be required or recommended for developments that may not strictly adhere to all the set assessment criteria. A pre-lodgement meeting can be a good way to gauge the chances of approval being granted and what would be required for potential approval. This meeting does not guarantee approval but can guide the application.
• Application – this is when your town planner grabs all the legislation relevant to your property, puts it all in one report, and addresses potentially hundreds of assessment criteria specific to your project – they plead your case. This is then submitted with all related documentation to local government and, if triggered, to the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) or other State governing body. All fees must be paid for the application to proceed.
• Referral – If state legislation is applicable for the property, the application must be referred to SARA, or other required State governing body, for assessment before it can go through final assessment with local council. If state assessment is not required, the application is submitted directly to the local Council.
• Information Request – After reading the application, the local Council has the opportunity to request for information to address any concerns or queries they might have that have not been addressed already within the application. A formal response, with related documentation, must then be provided to the Council.
• Public Notification – Some, but not all, developments will trigger a public notification period to help the community better understand and allow time to provide feedback on the planned development. This particularly applies to impact assessable developments.
• Decision – This phase can be a straight approval or refusal from the Council, but can also be encumbered by specific conditions that must be met for the development to legally occur.
• Appeal – This final phase is only required if the applicant requires certain conditions or the refusal to be reconsidered. These are lodged with the Planning and Environment Court.



• Confirmation Notice Period – the application must be read by Council and deemed a properly made application within 10 days of the application being lodged. Note – this is not the assessment period, but a check that all information has been properly supplied.
• Action Notice Period – if the application is deemed ‘not a properly made application’, the Council must issue an Action Notice within the 10-day period, which the applicant must comply with and respond to within 20 days from issue of the action notice.
• Referral – If the application required referral to a State referral agency, the agency must determine within 5 days after receipt of the application whether it was properly referred or not. Any action notices from a referring agency must be complied with within 20 days. This will delay the 5 day requirement of the referral confirmation notice.
• Information Request – if the application triggers an information request, it must be issued within the 10-day assessment period. The applicant must provide a response within 3 months from the issue of the Information Request.
• Public Notification – if public notification is triggered, it must be commenced within 20 days of receiving the confirmation notice from Council, which will stipulate whether the required public notification stage is 15 business days or 30 business days.
• Decision Notice – A decision notice cannot be issued until all above (relevant) steps have been completed. Upon completion of all previous steps, the assessment manager must assess and issue a decision notice within 35 days.
• Appeal – An appeal regarding a Decision Notice must be lodged within 20 days of issue of the Decision Notice. This appeal is made through the Planning and Environment Court and the timeframe will vary depending upon the case and the court.

Taking all these variables into consideration, a simple and straightforward application may only take approximately one month to be approved. However, more complex applications could take anything up to approximately 6 months!

This is without taking into consideration appeals and the time spent putting the application report and documentation together before submission.