TOWN PLANNER BRISBANE NORTHSIDE

Town planning in its simplest form, is about managing land uses and activities on a parcel of land. Urban Planners have expertise assessing the characteristics of this use or activity against the provisions of a local government’s planning scheme. So, what does a Town Planner do? Once a town planner has determined the level of compliance and any identified any site specific issues, they will guide a you through the Council and/or State Government application processes through to the decision. If approved, the decision will usually be what’s known as a ‘Development Permit’ which will give you a detailed set of development conditions and requirements for your project to go ahead.

There are four types of applications, including Material Change of Use, Reconfiguring a Lot (also known as a Subdivision), Building Work and Operational Works. In addition to these four types, there a three levels of assessment, formally known as categories of assessment. These are:

• Accepted Development – Where no development application is required;
• Code Assessment – Where a development application is required to be prepared to assess the development against a set of specific codes; and,
• Impact Assessment – Where the application is technically assessable against the whole planning scheme and public notification will be required.

Say you want to build a new home on a vacant allotment. Technically this application would be creating a new use, and that use would be known as a Dwelling House. In this example, a town planner would be required to lodge a Material Change of Use application to change the land from a vacant lot to accommodate a new dwelling. In many cases, the use may be located in an appropriate area, such as an estate or urban area. This usually means the use will not significantly impact the surrounding dwellings, nor will it create adverse impacts to the broader neighbourhood.

Alternatively, say that block of land was in the middle of an industrial estate. An urban planner may determine that the location is inappropriate due to poor air quality and noise impacts which have impacts on the liveability of future occupants of the house. In many cases, Brisbane City Council town planners will have already determined what uses are suited to an area by nominating a particular zone, or zoning, to the land. Local government Brisbane City Council town planners zone the whole city, clustering consistent uses and separating uses with high impacts and more intensity. As an example, a snip of a Brisbane City Council interactive mapping (below) highlights this zoning map.

Brisbane town planners have a few extra considerations which must be considered and are unique to our city. Design elements, such as sub-tropical design, are only applicable to certain types of development such as multiple dwellings (townhouses) and we will guide you through any design requirements for your site.

So, in summary a Material Change of Use is where you seek an approval for a new, or expanding use on a site. This can be anything from an industrial warehouse development, through to a dwelling house or childcare centre. Brisbane city council town planning may require you to lodge an application depending on the specifics of the use and the site.

    Once you contact us, it all starts with a simple BCC property enquiry in which we will give you free preliminary advice about your site. We will assess your application against the Brisbane city plan to understand assessment triggers, zoning, overlays and other site considerations such as slope and infrastructure.

We seek to ensure you are comfortable and confident with the site before committing a purchase. Whilst the exact cost of development approvals Brisbane depends on the type of development, the complexity of the project and site specific characteristics of the project, we can assist you with understanding and seeking costs to deliver it through to completion. When compared to each other, subdivision costs Brisbane, Redlands, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan and Gold Coast, can vary greatly.

We will then prepare a town planning report, addressing any issues that the development has against the local government planning scheme. The Brisbane town plan is the Brisbane City Plan 2014. Once you are ready lodge the application, your application will be assigned a Brisbane City Council town planner who reviews the information and distributes it internally to a range of Council specialists. Town Planner Brisbane continue to manage the discussion with Council and the specialists to identify and resolve issues and achieve an approval quickly.

We are senior urban planners who provides a tailored approach to gaining your development approval. We are specialists in Brisbane town planning, development management and project delivery. Whilst we specialise in Brisbane City and Redland City, we also regularly service Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, Gold Coast City Council local government areas.
So engage a town planner, who specialises in both urban planning and development to ensure your project is delivered through to completion, on time and in budget.

The development type Building Work is development type that considers the specific amenity and design of construction as well as demolition works.

With respect to town planning Brisbane, the most common type of Building Work assessment is the Traditional Building Character Overlay. Houses in the overlay that are identified to be pre-1946 cannot typically be demolished.

The Traditional Building Character Overlay seeks to maintain traditional character in streets where there are houses built in or before 1946. This will generally require new houses to replicate the architectural elements of the traditional homes in the neighbourhood, such as pitched roofs, non-dominating garages, timber chamfer-board construction and forward facing balconies.

We can guide you through the town planning requirements of the overlay, and provide information to you or your designer regarding the architectural requirements for your new build.

The formal description of a subdivision is the ‘division of a parcel of land for separate use, development or occupation.’ The most common form of subdivision Brisbane is residential freehold subdivision where a town planner seeks to establish an additional lot to construct an additional, separately titled dwelling house.

The concept of a subdivision is simple, but their delivery requires consideration of a range of factors, including:

• The minimum lot size of site’s zoning;
• Minimum frontage, shape and depth;
• Safe vehicle access to the site
• A lawful point of stormwater discharge;
• Ability to connect to infrastructure such as water, sewer, power and communications;
• Any fill, retaining walls or other significant site works to establish a house pad. Etc.

BCC town planners can be fairly unwavering when it comes to certain design requirements. Therefore, it is important that you engage a town planning firm early in the process to review all relevant site characteristics along side the BCC subdivision and development guidelines prior to committing to a development. In the development stages flow chart above, this would be during the ‘due diligence’ phase.

Operational Work is typically designed by an engineer and generally includes infrastructure or works required to establish a use. The range of these works may include excavating or filling, clearing vegetation, road works and infrastructure and typically are requirements of a Subdivision approval or Material Change of Use approval given by Council.

Town Planner Brisbane can assist co-ordinate design, costing and installation of your Operational Works and manage the project compliance and on-maintenance.