The Planning Act 2016 outlines the step-by-step process for lodging, assessing and deciding development applications. Council officers follow this system when assessing an application. There are five main stages of assessment:
Note: not all stages, or all parts of a stage, apply to all applications.
Council offers a pre-lodgement service that allows applicants to seek advice from planning officers prior to lodging the application. Please contact us for further information on the pre-lodgement process.
Applications are lodged either electronically, by post, or in person at Council’s Customer Service Counter. Fees and charges are raised and paid at this time.
The application will initially be assessed to ensure it is “properly made” in accordance with the Planning Act 2016. If the application is not properly made, the applicant will receive an action notice identifying items to be addressed. If the application is properly made, the application stage will end and the next stage will commence. A confirmation notice may be sent at this stage.
If any relevant referral agencies are identified on the confirmation notice, the applicant must send a copy of the application to each identified agency.
The assessing officer will commence the assessment of the application. This is when further information may be requested if there is insufficient information to allow a decision to be made.
This stage is only for applicable impact assessable applications. Public notification is satisfied by placing an advertisement in the Townsville Bulletin, erecting a public notice sign on all street frontages of the development site, and sending a letter to all adjoining neighbours advising of the details of the proposed development.
The applicant must notify council when public notification has commenced and confirm that public notification has been completed in accordance with the Planning Act 2016 once the public notification period has ended.
When all information and responses have been received from referral agencies and the applicant, the decision stage commences.
The assessing officer refers to the relevant legislation, the planning scheme codes and policies, Australian Standards and the State Planning Policy, as required, to assess all aspects of the application.
The assessing officer will prepare a report, detailing the proposal and making a recommendation to approve, approve with conditions or refuse the application.
The application may then be decided under delegated authority based on the assessing officer’s recommendation. Depending on the type of application, it may be required to be decided by Full Council and the recommendation presented to the Planning and Development Committee.
A decision notice is emailed to the applicant when a decision has been made. This decision notice will also detail the conditions that the approval is contingent on (see Standard Conditions below).
Development approvals are usually contingent on conditions. Council has developed Standard Conditions, which represent the most commonly used conditions.
The conditions attached to a development approval must be:
Conditions may be imposed that:
Development applications can be submitted to Council by one of the following methods:
