Initial review
What do we do once your application is lodged?
Behind the scenes there is a lot of data entry and statutory record keeping requirements.
Our Team Leaders will review the documentation provided. It is at this stage that they will determine whether the application is OK to proceed or whether it needs to be rejected as an incomplete application. The Team Leaders will identify the neighbouring properties that need to be notified that the application has been lodged, and will then present the application to our Development Application Review Committee (DARC).
What is DARC?
The DARC is a staff committee that undertakes a weekly review of newly lodged development applications. For each application the committee:
- determines if there are any obvious deficencies in the information provided by the Applicant, and
- determines what expert referrals are necessary and makes sure that the correct referral fees, if applicable, have been paid
- determines if concurrence is required from any State Government body
- determines the extent of neighbour notification for the advertising and notification period
- makes a fee determination
The committee is constituted by:
- our Development Assessment Team Leaders
- a heritage officer
- a development engineer
- a trees officer
- a building surveyor (as required)
- a fire safety officer (as required)
- an environmental health officer (as required)
- an urban design planner/architect (as required)
- a traffic engineer (as required)
What happens next?
Following DARC the application is split into many parts and any one or more of the following processes generally take place:
- a letter is sent to the applicant making a request for any additional information necessary to allow a proper assessment of the application
- the plans, the Statement of Environmental Effects and any relevant expert reports are referred to our internal and external experts - see expert referrals.
- the advertising and notification process is commenced - see advertising and notification period.