The Basics
As a general rule, it is not necessary to engage a professional town planner to prepare your DA objection or submission and it won’t necessarily make your case any more compelling. This is something that impacts you, after all, and concerns expressed from the heart will often make a greater impression with the decision makers.
A qualified planner might, however, be of benefit when;
you have difficulty in understanding the plans and how they affect you;
The proposed development and its impacts are particularly complex;
you suspect impacts have been presented inaccurately in the DA documentation;
You don’t understand the planning controls;
You want to make verbal submission to the decision makers, but don’t feel confident about public speaking.
Where do I find a good town planner?
Unless friends, family or business associates have a recommendation Google enquiry is as good a method as any. Enter the term ‘town planner’ and your location.
Tip: Ideally you want a planner who is based in your locality or who works in that area regularly. If the planner is already familiar with the planning controls, that will save you money and likely improve the submission.
Here are some questions to ask on your first enquiry;
Is the company able to complete the submission within the time allowed by Council’s notification period?
What is a rough guide as to what this might cost? OR ‘I am willing to pay $XXX – is that a realistic budget and what sort of submission can you prepare within it?
Be prepared to outline what your concerns are, eg ‘privacy, ‘views,’ ‘overshadowing’- this will help the planner gauge the likely level of complexity and cost.
Who, within the organisation, will do the work?
Planning consultancies usually work on a time/charge basis, with hourly rates based on level of seniority. For most submissions, it will be fine to have a mid-level staff member (senior planner or associate) doing the work. Usually this will be reviewed under a quality control process by a more senior staff member.
If there’s a lot at stake you may want a senior staff member/director having a more hands on role – that might be the case where you want that person to represent you at a local or regional planning panel meeting, for example – but be prepared to pay a higher cost.
Is the individual/organisation a member of the Planning Institute of Australia? Members of the PIA are bound by a Code of Conduct and have to meet certain standards, including continuing professional development.
How much will it cost?
This depends on a number of factors:
The complexity of the DA;
The complexity of the concerns you want to raise. View loss and overshadowing impacts are examples of potentially ‘complex’ issues;
How professionally documented the applicant’s DA is;
How familiar the planner is with your locality, the type of development involved and the local planning controls;
The seniority level of the person who will be responsible for the work;
The amount of time available; ‘urgent’ jobs frequently cost more because they may involve less efficient work practices.
Before contacting a professional town planner.
Ask yourself ‘What do I want to achieve?’ Receiving notification of a development application, particularly when it’s the first you’ve heard about it, can raise a variety of emotions and sometimes a temptation to want a DA objection that ‘throws the kitchen sink’ at the proposal; in other words, instructing a town planning consultant to go through the development application with a fine-tooth comb and pick up every little (or big) flaw.
The obvious downside of this approach is the much higher cost involved. The less obvious downside is that your greatest concerns may be diluted when forming only part of such a sweeping objection. Remember: the more limited and specific the concerns you want to raise, the more likely the cost will be lower and the strength of your submission, most likely, improved. Before picking up the phone, make a dot point list of your concerns and rank them in order of importance to you. If you have ideas about what could be done to make the DA better for you, explain this to the town planner.
Most important - and although this might sound harsh - do not spend time on the phone to the town planner with any grumble about the developer, the council, the unfairness of the planning system and planning controls or anything else the town planner can do absolutely nothing about. All this will do is increase your cost with no benefit to you and soak up time that is better spent in careful consideration of the concerns that can be meaningfully addressed.
And:
Always have a conversation about cost. Ask if the consultant will provide a fixed fee quotation and what you can expect within that budget. If the consultant will only provide a time charge service still ask for an estimate and to be kept informed if your budget is likely to be exceeded.
How long will it take?
The town planner will need to visit your property, look at the DA documentation, read the relevant planning controls and make their own assessment of the issues you want to raise. A good town planner will provide you feedback about the validity of your concerns and also alert you to other issues you may have overlooked. All of this takes time - so if you are thinking about engaging a town planner you should start this process as soon as possible.
Not all may be lost if you have left your run late. Either you, or the town planner you have engaged can contact the council assessment officer and ask for an extension of time.
Are there other experts I should consider talking to?
This depends entirely on what your concerns relate to. You might only be interested in the development’s impact on a tree within your property, in which case an arborist might be helpful. Alternatively, you might just be concerned about storm water runoff, where a drainage engineer would hold the necessary expertise.
It is always open to you to engage whatever experts you believe will advance your case, but this is an expensive path to go down and generally speaking it should not be necessary. If a proposed development raises the prospect of a particular environmental impact, it is the applicant’s responsibility to address that issue with the necessary expertise, and the council’s responsibility to assess the adequacy of the documentation the applicant submits.
If you believe the applicant’s DA documentation has not identified or addressed an issue a good starting point is:
To raise this with Council, in a ‘preliminary submission.’ Put forward as much factual evidence as you have to demonstrate that a potential impact would exist, and has not been dealt with. If it’s a view impact, for example, include photographs from your property which preferably include some benchmark which easily demonstrates a view impact would occur.
Indicate you would like an extension of time to respond to any further information the applicant submits.
Follow up and ask if the council intends to ask the applicant to submit supplementary reports or plans dealing with that issue.
If it is indicated that the applicant refuses to submit additional information or if the council officer indicates they are not persuaded there is an issue, then you might reconsider whether engaging your own expert is worthwhile.
How do I find these experts?
Development assessment commonly draws on areas of expertise as diverse as heritage, urban design, view impact analysis, solar access/overshadowing, ecological impacts, bushfire, engineering (drainage, traffic etc), arboricultural and landscape. Each of these individual areas of expertise has their own areas of specialisation and not all companies who have expertise also have experience in the development assessment framework.
If you have already engaged a town planner, this person will be best placed to suggest what other companies might offer the particular expertise you need. Town planners experienced in DA assessment usually understand those individual areas of specialisation to a depth which might be sufficient to demonstrate an unacceptable impact exists or at least, that a potentially unacceptable impact has not been satisfactorily addressed. They also know which companies are regularly called on to provide specialist assistance.
Do I need an environmental planning lawyer?
Sometimes development assessment also raises legal issues or affects property rights, such as a right of carriageway or easement. Most town planners are not qualified to give legal advice. If there’s an important legal issue raised by the DA you should consider engaging a lawyer who specialises in property and local government law.
Should I club together with my neighbours?
A joint DA objection or submission will keep your cost down, but before going down this path it is important you are confident that the development application affects you all in pretty much the same way. Why? Because there is a possibility that the prospect of amendments may arise at some point as a DA moves through the assessment process and these amendments may benefit some neighbours in the group but disadvantage others. A town planning consultant acting for a group may well be presented by irreconcilable conflicts so that, potentially, no one’s interest is served in an optimum way.