Anyone wishing to build or make significant changes to their properties are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the NSW Government's online Planning Portal before new legislative changes come into effect on July 1, 2021.
Under the changes, Council will no longer be able to accept a range of planning applications at the front counter, including; Development Applications, Section 4.55 Applications, Complying Development Applications, Construction Certificates, Subdivision Certificates, Occupation Certificates.
Council's Manager City Development Planning and Compliance, Paul Bawden, said the move to electronic lodgement should streamline the application process.
"There will now be one standard form for all development matters that can be filled out and submitted online via the planning portal at any time," said Paul.
"Users will also receive automatic notification of application milestone stages throughout the assessment process.
"Although we'll no longer be able to accept applications at the front counter, we're aware that not everybody is proficient on a computer, so we're currently looking at what level of support we can offer."
The planning portal can currently be used by anyone seeking to lodge an application, and can be found here: https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/
Users will need to register and verify an account. Once this is complete users will be able to access a user dashboard and lodge applications.
