Meet the Team

We manage the planning process end‑to‑end so you don’t have to. That includes shaping your concept with you and your architect or designer, providing input into plans, and identifying where technical advice (for example traffic, bushfire, stormwater, landscape or heritage) is needed. We brief and coordinate these specialists so their work fits together and clearly supports your application. Once the proposal is ready, we prepare and lodge the planning application, manage requests for further information (RFIs), and handle public notice/advertising requirements. Throughout the process we liaise directly with council officers, respond to their queries, and keep you informed, aiming to move your application through assessment as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

You can lodge a planning application yourself, but many people find the process time‑consuming, confusing and frustrating. Planning schemes are technical documents, and small errors in plans or reports can lead to delays, extra costs or even refusal. We help you clarify what you want to achieve, translate that into a planning‑ready proposal, and manage the process with council. For more complex or contested applications, having an experienced planner involved from the start can significantly improve your chances of a timely, positive outcome.

A planning permit is council’s approval to use or develop the land in a particular way under the planning scheme – for example more dwellings on a lot, a new use, or buildings and works. A building permit is separate approval from a building surveyor that your construction itself complies with building regulations and safety standards. In most cases you need the planning permit first, then the building permit. We can guide you through both steps so you understand what’s needed and when, and we often work with a range of building surveyors to help streamline the handover process.

There is a technical 60‑day decision timeframe, but in reality, the time can vary depending on the council, the complexity of the proposal and whether extra information or referrals are needed. Straightforward, well‑prepared applications can be decided within a few months, while larger or more sensitive developments can take longer. We focus on getting the application ‘right first time’ and staying in contact with council, which helps minimise delays and keep you informed about realistic timeframes

Every application needs the basics: an application form, recent title documents and clear, scaled plans showing what you propose. Most projects also benefit from a planning statement that explains how your proposal meets the planning scheme, and in many cases council will expect specialist input (for example traffic, bushfire, stormwater, landscape, heritage, ESD or arborist advice). We regularly coordinate these inputs for clients and work closely with trusted subconsultants and other specialists, so you don’t have to manage a large technical team yourself. From our first triage of your development, we can flag likely information needs, recommend appropriate subconsultants and pull everything together into a complete, well‑targeted package that gives your application the best chance of a smooth assessment.

We are conscious that every extra report or design change costs time and money, so we focus on what is genuinely needed to support a robust application. From the outset, we match the level of documentation and specialist input to the scale, risk and sensitivity of your proposal, rather than taking a one‑size‑fits‑all approach. We are upfront about likely costs, help you stage work sensibly, and look for opportunities to resolve issues through design and dialogue with council rather than defaulting to unnecessary complexity.

Yes. A key part of our role is to give you realistic advice, not just tell you what you want to hear. If we think your concept is unlikely to be supported in its current form, we will explain why, outline possible changes that could improve its prospects, or advise when it may be better not to proceed.