We’ve sent you your commencement account…
Let’s Get Started
On Your PPA
The next step is for you to go ahead and
pay for your preliminary planning assessment.
pay for your preliminary planning assessment.
Let’s Get Started
Your Next Step
Thank you for talking to our Council Approval Consultant. We have just sent you through our invoice for us to get started.
Really looking forward to our team to be able to work with you.
So if you go ahead and make that payment, what our team will do is immediately to start working and researching on your property. And then in the promised timeframe, very soon you will get a message from us saying that it’s time to line up your Project Strategy Session.
You’ll get a call from us soon on that but in the meantime, please get that invoice paid. We do have limited availability with our town planners. We are onboarding a lot of clients at the moment and I want to make sure you don’t miss out. I also know that a certain timeframe has been promised in terms of delivery for you and I want to be able to keep our promises to you.
We are really looking forward to working with you. And we’ll talk to you very soon.
Frequently Asked Questions
We understand & we have all the answers you need...
A Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA), and its Project Strategy session (PSS), originally conceived by Council Approval Group, is a property analysis report and planning discussion on your property.
Not only is the purpose of this step to help you make a well-informed decision about the potential development options of your property (there are usually more than one or two options or even a combination of development options available), but it also predicts the sleekest course for an approval and anticipates the smoothest way around and through any anticipated “speed bumps”.
A Preliminary Planning Assessment generally answers the following questions:
- What is the quickest and easiest path to get approval for the development option I would like to achieve?
- Are there any planning law loopholes that might simplify the approval process?
- What are the planning laws that apply to my property in the context of my ambition?
- What are my chances of success?
- What major hurdles should I be aware of and what hoops will I need to jump through to achieve approval?
- Is there a better project than I have thought of?
A Preliminary Planning Assessment is essential for you to:
01. Avoid wasting time and money on an application only to find out later that the development you want is not permissible or is unlikely to be approved
02. Help you to find the easiest way to achieve your selected development option
03. Allow you to discover if there is a development scenario that is better suited to your needs or is more valuable than the option you have in mind
04. Better understand the towning planning laws that apply to your property
05. Explore and expose any planning law loopholes.
06. Receive preliminary advice on the likelihood of your preferred development option and its viability based on our 50+ consecutive years of experience
Consider what we like to call “the prescription without diagnosis is malpractice” parable to help explain this question.
You call up doctor A and explain that you’re aging and every 24 hours you seem to be getting a day older and ask what the strategies are that can slow this process down. Without asking any questions about your lifestyle or health history, doctor A quotes a ridiculous dollar amount and says that you need an unnecessary yet immediate emergency procedure and alludes that it might literally cost you an arm and a leg.
You have never been so motivated to get a second opinion!
You then call doctor B (like Council Approval Group) and explain your situation using the exact same words. Unlike doctor A, doctor B takes the time to ask you the right questions and talks you through the proper procedure of making a professional and more accurate diagnosis, explains why working together could be the right fit, and is willing to help you every step of the way. And for a small initial fee the foundational research could be done for further diagnosis. It’s only then that doctor B says they can know what’s really going on and how to tackle it.
Council Approval Group, like doctor B, only prescribes the full “treatment” (or the plan going forward for a development application, for example) once the primary research has been done—that’s the Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA).
The PPA stipulates what development type or business use is associated with your property. Our team scrutinise each planning instrument to expose every possible development potential available to the property. Excitingly, there is often more than one development opportunity, some superior to others.
The PPA identifies and highlights the probability of issues or hurdles that could come up and how to navigate them.
You can see why it would be a mistake, often an expensive mistake, to jump straight to a development application before having the initial report carried out on your property.
The PPA report acts as a roadmap to help you navigate the subsequent stages of a development application and to offer you the options for the highest value and best use of your property. We believe this step is crucial to the success of any project.
As our Principal, Max Fragar, says, “in property the most expensive advice is free advice”.
Success Rate
We have a 98% percent success rate in achieving council approval, based on our 25-year history.
This means that you can have certainty in knowing that not only you selected the best possible project (based on our Preliminary Planning Assessment) but you also gave your project the best possible chance of success.
To achieve the best result, and capitalise on our 98% success rate over the past 25 years, there are a few essential things that you need to do to maximise your chance of success:
- First, engage us to do a Preliminary Planning Assessment (don’t skip this step);
- Work with our internal design team (if a project comes unstuck it is usually because the plans were prepared by someone who has no council approval experience and is not working closely with a consultant town planner); and
- Be willing to push through council negativity and follow our recommendations all the way through to the end.
The Australian town planning system is one of the most regulated and restricted systems in the world. Despite our track record being possibly the best in Australia, despite having 12,000 plus projects over 25 years under our belt, we do not guarantee approval.
We suggest that anyone who guarantees a council approval is playing in the infant safe zone. They usually are not in business for more than a year. Clients soon realise that if approval is guaranteed, it means that the consultant is not seeking the best outcome from council, as they play it safe so they keep their paycheque.
What we guarantee is that your project will be given the best possible chance of success for the best possible outcome.
Right Fit
Council Approval Group have helped thousands of property owners and business owners over the last 25 years, giving them the right approval through council.
We continue to add hundreds of thousands of dollars in value to people’s lives through council approval, whether it be monetary in nature or the priceless gift of time. For many of our clients, getting an approval has meant a positive change in lifestyle and a better trajectory for the future. It sometimes has meant avoiding a sticky or complicated situation, or simply avoiding the time, stress, and hassle of dealing with council all on their own (dealing with council all on your own… now there’s a daunting thought).
Not only do we add value to our client’s business or property portfolio in the way of an approval, we are also proud to say that we add value to their lives.
Our years of success and trusted industry reputation can give you the confidence that Council Approval Group can help get you where your property and business dreams should be.
A coach or mentor can often take a decade of learning and experience and put it into a day for the benefit of others. That’s certainly what we aim to do with our over 50+ consecutive years of town planning experience.
We eat council applications for breakfast. Since the 1960s our team have been helping people navigate the council approval process. Having completed over 3000+ projects, we are hypersensitive to the nuances of any development application. Our years of experience help predict councils’ next moves and even dodge the unnecessary red tape. They would never admit it but our team have X-ray vision when it comes to seeing straight through councils’ intricacies and the multiple layers of planning law.
The top 5 benefits of using an expert town planner at Council Approval Group:
-We see and create opportunity
-We speak the town planning council lingo
-We advocate for real people, bringing them hope and clarity
-We ask the right answers to get the best results
-We expand your vision and the possibilities of your property
We’re proud of our history. Rewind to 1967. With Elvis sideburns, Max Fragar confidently sailed into a town planning career of which he would make a huge success and be admirably recognised for decades later. It was clear that Max had the town planning knack and was certainly good at what he did.
But one thing pulled Max Fragar’s heart string one too many times. Max realised that for many Australians the time, stress, and hassle of achieving council approval was a very real challenge. “On frequent occasions, I saw members of the community break down in sheer frustration at the front counter of council because of the daunting task it was to be able to try to understand the complex planning law and approval process. I often saw someone with a great dream and a great project simply give up because the whole process seemed too overwhelming, too stressful, too complicated and too difficult to pursue.”
And Max was determined to help.
So, after 25 years Max bowed out gracefully from his highly successful career within local government and turned instead to embrace the challenge of assisting everyday Australians to better navigate the council approval process. This decision in 1996 would mean that as of today over 12,000 people have been helped to navigate the approval process in Australia.
Since 2011, when Max’s son Colin Fragar partnered with his Dad, the team has continued to grow and expand. Today we are a firm of over 20 exceptional professionals who eat the council approval process for breakfast. Our magnificent team are in pursuit of making the planning and council approval process one to be enjoyed and not endured.
Today, Council Approval Group incorporates Max Fragar & Associates, Fragar Planning & Development, The Council Approval Experts, and Council Approval Design.
We proudly continue the admirable and worthwhile quest and mission that Max Fragar envisioned all those years ago. This vision is the foundational crux today: to simplify, even streamline, the council approval process for as many Australians as will have us help.
Although we’d like to help everyone, if you’re Harry Trigguboff, you’re not who we’re looking for.
If you’re only looking for the cheapest quote, we’re probably not going to be the right fit.
If you’re not ready to find out the true potential of your property and to move forward in the near future, you might like to look somewhere else.
We’re only interested in people who are ready now to change their lives and financial future by enhancing their properties’ potential through getting council approval.
Are you a property owner looking to maximise the potential of your land?
Are you someone who is looking for a secondary income or extra rental return?
Are you a property investor who wants to manufacture property yield through council
approval?
Do you have a business that needs council approval?
If you answered yes to any of these questions and you’re serious about moving forward now, well, then what are you waiting for? (That’s your cue to make an appointment to talk to us… Our number is 1300 138 008.)
Once you engage us to do a DA you will work directly with one of our highly experienced Local Government Town Planners.
We’re a firm of over 20 exceptional professionals who eat the council approval process for breakfast. Our magnificent team are in pursuit of making the planning and council approval process one to be enjoyed and not endured.
We don’t just write reports. We don’t just create plans. We achieve council approval. We create dreams.
We know how to talk the council lingo and can perceive, even predict, their next move, and we know how to jump through councils’ hoops of fire.
After helping over 12,000 people with their council approval, we are proud to say there is no one else in Australia like us with as much depth of experience and breadth of project knowledge that focuses on helping Australians achieve council approval.
Our founder, Max Fragar, says that a successful outcome is achieved only when you have all three of the following:
A Good Client + A Good Consultant + A Good Project.
In other words, it doesn’t matter how good your project is or how badly you want to achieve it, a project comes unstuck if you work with the wrong consultant.
With a collective experience of 387 years, our expert team is made up of highly skilled, very knowledgeable, and qualified property consultants, designers, and town planners. You can learn more about our team here.
Our expertise means your council approval is streamlined and given the best chance of success.
30,491
Projects
Complete
Complete
387 YRS
Of Experience
On Our Team
On Our Team
2.5 DAYS
How Often We
Get Approval
Get Approval
$250K
Average Value
Added to Clients
Added to Clients
As Seen In
