- Hello, it's Amelia here, the Undercover Architect.
I had a question recently, about whether if your plans
are being drawn up by a licensed building designer,
will they still need council approval?
The two of those things actually don't have
any real relationship to each other.
Whether or not your project will need council approval
is going to be totally dependent on your local council,
and its requirements for work on your property,
and your block of land.
Often the best way to find this out
is actually to have a look at your local council website,
most Australian council websites
will have frequently asked questions,
with fact sheets or information on the website,
answering questions like,
"Does my project need council approval?",
or, "What is a development application?",
"What is a development approval?",
and, you'll be able to start there
in terms of getting a bit of an understanding about
what's going to impact your property,
and your plans for your property,
and whether they're going to need council approval.
Failing that, if you can't actually find
that information on your council website,
you can just pick up the phone to your local council.
Often the person who answers the phone
will be able to give you some information
or point you in the right direction.
Sometimes you can even get to have a conversation
with one of the council town planners,
who can give you specific information for your property.
Of course it's always more useful if you can call them
and say "Look this is what I'm thinking about doing,
"and this is what I need to know",
rather than just asking them an open-ended question.
If you're working with a design professional though,
the best thing to do is to actually
get their help in finding this out,
Design professionals will be able to find
that information usually themselves quite quickly,
or they may have experience of working in your council area,
or working in similar councils.
Council rules all come off a state-based legislation,
and they all come off a federal-based legislation.
So what I've actually found
in working with clients all over Australia,
is the rules are often quite similar,
they're just explained in slightly different ways,
or, they're located in different places, but,
I can usually find the information
for every council around Australia,
by looking on a website, or picking up the phone
and speaking to a local town planner.
Your professional will know the questions to ask,
they'll know the information that they need to know
to create a project, a renovation design for you,
that will or won't need council approval
and what's going to trigger
needing council approval for your project.
Whether or not you need council approval
is often linked to where you live,
what the quality and character of that area it is,
be it if it has some historical heritage quality
in terms of having a lot of old homes in it.
If you're changing your street elevation
because that will have an impact on how the street looks,
so that can often trigger council approval.
If you're extending your property, going up or going out.
because that will have an impact on your neighbours.
Council are charged with guarding the quality
and character of your whole suburb that they oversee,
and so, they take on the responsibility of representing,
I suppose, your community and your neighbours,
in terms of managing what each individual
does on their site.
And so if you think about it from that point of view,
you can start to understand why certain things
are going to need council approval,
because it's about the impact on other people,
as well as protecting the quality
of the area that you love living in.
I hope you found that helpful, I'll see you later, bye.
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