Town planning permit drawings.

We run the application, not just the drawings

There is a difference between preparing a planning set and managing a planning application, and it is where most projects lose months. The drawings are the artefact. The application is a process — with a statutory clock, a council officer, sometimes objectors, and a series of moments where a fast, well-judged response is worth more than a beautiful elevation.

This page is about that process. If you want to know what actually goes into a planning set — the shadow diagrams, the ResCode response, the materials schedule — that is covered in detail on town planning drawings.

The request for further information is the whole game

Most planning delays are not design disputes. They are RFIs. Council receives your application, finds it cannot assess what was submitted, writes to you asking for more — and the statutory clock stops until you answer. A fortnight of drift here, a month there, and a "three month" application is eight.

Two things prevent it. First, lodging complete: the survey, the shadow diagrams, the overlay-triggered reports, the standard-by-standard ResCode response. Second, when an RFI does land, answering it properly and quickly rather than negotiating it in instalments.

What we actually do

• Establish the controls first — zone, overlays, character precinct — before design, not after. This is the step that changes projects.
• Test the built form against the standards that apply to your precinct, so the scheme that gets drawn is the scheme that can be approved.
• Assemble the submission — and coordinate the consultants an overlay drags in: bushfire, heritage, arborist, traffic.
• Lodge and manage it — officer liaison, RFI responses, amended plans, and the negotiation that decides marginal applications.
• Handle advertising and objections where a proposal is advertised — overlooking, overshadowing and neighbourhood character are the three grounds that carry weight.
• Carry it to VCAT if it comes to that, though our preference is a proposal defensible enough that it does not.

Every council reads its scheme differently

This is the part outsiders underestimate. The state sets the framework; the municipality sets the overlays, the character precincts and the local policy — and the officer applies them. We have built in these councils and written up what each one actually asks for:

Frankston · Monash · Whitehorse · Glen Eira · Kingston · Boroondara · Darebin · Banyule

Once planning is resolved, the endorsed drawings become the basis of the building permit — a separate approval, different assessor, different rulebook.