Town Planning Explained

In our post on the design phases, we mentioned that town planning sits between Schematic Design and Design Development, and promised to cover it properly so here we are.

Town planning is the stage people find hardest to sit with, because it's the one part of the process where the pace isn't set by you, us, or the builder. It's set by your council. Understanding how it works won't make it faster, but it does make it far less frustrating.

What a Planning Permit actually is
A quick recap from our pre-design post: a planning permit is council's permission to build what you're proposing. It considers the impact on neighbours, the streetscape and the local planning scheme. It's separate from the building permit, which comes later and deals with how the thing gets built.

Not every renovation needs a planning permit. Whether yours does depends on your property's zoning, any overlays that apply (heritage being the most common trigger in the inner suburbs) and the nature of the work. Extensions visible from the street, second storeys, work in a heritage overlay and projects on smaller lots are the usual candidates. This is exactly what we check during pre-design, so by the time a design exists, we already know which path it's on.

How the process works
Once the Schematic Design is resolved, we prepare and lodge the planning application. It includes the required drawings, a planning report addressing the relevant controls, the feature and levels survey, and any specialist reports the site requires.

From there, the application moves through a fairly predictable sequence. Council assigns a planner and reviews the application. They may issue a Request for Further Information (an RFI) asking for clarification or changes. Most applications are then advertised, which means letters to adjoining neighbours and a sign on your fence for around two weeks, giving anyone affected the chance to comment. Then the planner assesses everything and makes a decision.

If there were no objections, an approval comes as a planning permit. If there were objections, an approval first comes as a Notice of Decision, which gives objectors a window to appeal before the permit is issued.

How long it takes
The statutory timeframe for a council decision is 60 days. In practice, most applications in Melbourne take longer, and 8 to 16 weeks is a realistic range for a straightforward residential application. Add an RFI or a busy council and it stretches from there.

Two useful exceptions. Some minor works qualify for VicSmart, a streamlined pathway where council must decide within 10 business days and the application isn't advertised. And some projects, as above, don't need a permit at all. Part of our job is knowing which pathway your project fits.

Objections, and what they mean
The word objection makes people nervous, so it's worth demystifying. An objection doesn't mean your project is refused. It means a neighbour has raised a concern, and the planner weighs it against the planning scheme. Reasonable, well-designed proposals with genuine objections get approved all the time.

If council refuses an application, or approves it with conditions you can't live with, there's a review path through VCAT. It adds months, so it's a last resort, but it exists. The better strategy is the one that avoids all of this, which brings us to design.

Why this shapes the design process
This stage is the reason Schematic Design is deliberately kept at a high level. You don't want to resolve every joinery detail on a design council might ask you to change. It's also the reason we design with the planning controls in mind from the very beginning. The overlays, setbacks, and heritage constraints uncovered in pre-design aren't obstacles we discover late. They're inputs the design responds to from the first sketch, which is the single biggest thing that keeps applications moving.

A couple of things you can do to help. Talk to your neighbours before the sign goes up on the fence. An extension they've heard about over the fence line reads very differently to one they discover in a letter from council. And build the waiting into your expectations from the start, so the quiet months feel like part of the plan rather than a delay. There's useful progress that can happen during them, and we use that time deliberately.

Where it fits
If you're mapping your own timeline: pre-design runs 3 to 4 weeks, Schematic Design 4 to 6 weeks, and town planning typically 2 to 3 months in straightforward cases before Design Development begins in earnest. The full picture of how the phases fit together is in our design phases post.

If you're not sure whether your project needs a planning permit, that's a quick question we can look into during pre-design, and often answerable in an early conversation. We're always happy to start with one.