Public notification stage

The Planning Act 2016 requires certain development applications to be publicly notified. This is to be undertaken in accordance with the Development assessment rules (PDF) enacted under Section 68(1) of the Act.

This notification gives interested community members an opportunity to review and provide comments on a development application.

Details of the proposed development must be included as part of public notification to ensure that the public is aware of the existence and nature of the application. This enables interested parties to make a properly made submission.

Public notification of an application is required if any part of the application requires impact assessment or the development application includes a variation request.

The applicant must in accordance to the Development assessment rules give notice to the assessment manager of the intended start date of public notification.  This is to occur within twenty (20) business days from the day after the applicant has received a Confirmation notice (properly made application) from Council and after the day the last referral assessment period for any referral agency has started, if applicable.

When the notification period has ended, the applicant must, within ten (10) business days, give the assessment manager written notice that the notification requirements under the Act have been met. This notice is called the 'Notice of compliance'.

The following public notification requirements apply:

  • publish a notice (at least once) in a newspaper circulating generally in the locality of the site;
  • place a notice on the site (in the approved form as detailed in the Act) for the full notification period. The notice must be maintained from the day it is placed on the land until the end of the notification period; and
  • give notice to the owners of all land adjoining the site. This includes an owner of an adjoining lot that has a common boundary with the subject site, whether such boundary is measurable or not.

The notification period is a minimum of 15 business days.  For applications that are a variation request, the notification period is extended to 30 business days.  It may be longer for some applications or over the Christmas Period. It is recommended that you seek advice as to the notification period prior to commencing public notification.

Notification can start as soon as either the:

  • confirmation notice is given, provided there are no referral agencies and that the assessment manager states in the confirmation notice that it does not intend to make an information request;
  • information request period (as described in the Act) ends and if no information request has been made during this period; or
  • applicant responds to all information requests and gives copies of any responses to the assessment manager.

Contact us

For further information contact Council's Development and Planning Department on 1300 79 49 29.

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