How Does A Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA) Help Me?
STAGE 1:
PROPERTY REVIEW
& ASSESSMENT
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- Clarification and summation of the key development objectives for the site
- In-depth analysis of the environmental mapping overlays applicable to the property (e.g. zoning, lot size, bushfire, flood)
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STAGE 2:
TOWN PLANNING LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
- Identifying and evaluation of applicable broad town planning laws that relate to the subject property
- Review of state legislation to identify opportunities for streamlined approvals, advantageous pathways or potential pitfalls
- Development of strategies to optimise property value based on current planning frameworks
- Assessment of the most efficient and viable path to approval
STAGE 3:
PROJECT STRATEGY SESSION WITH SENIOR TOWN PLANNERS
- High-level Project Strategy Session with your dedicated Town Planners to discuss project objectives and constraints
- Top level review of detailed planning report, addressing key insights and legal planning considerations
- Discussion focussed on your specific site, project type and development ambitions
- Open conversation, feedback & considerations for your project
- Provide a path forward including actionable steps to progress the development
A Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA), and its Project Strategy session, originally conceived by Council Approval Group, is a property analysis report and planning discussion on your property. This is the general path that our Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA) Process follows. Your specific engagement may vary slightly.
Why is a PPA important for my project?
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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”.
Plans are usually indicative of what planning laws apply to your property.
The benefit to getting a Preliminary Planning Assessment completed on your property before doing plans is that it allows you to discover the following:
- The quickest and easiest path to getting approval for the development option you would like to achieve
- The best development option for your property
- If there are any loopholes that might simplify the approval process
- The planning laws that apply to your property in the context of your ambition.
- Your chances of success.
- What major hurdles you should be aware of and what hoops you will need to jump through to achieve approval
If you do talk to council, one of three things is likely to occur. Either you will become discouraged because you can’t get the answers you need, or you’ll give up because the council duty planner tells you what you want to do is not possible, or you cannot understand the language.
They say that “a council town planner will tell you what you can’t do, a consultant town planner will tell you what you can do”.
Many people make the wrong assumption that council officers are there to help you deconstruct the planning rules and provide insight into how to interpret and decipher planning law. Sadly, it is in fact the opposite. A council planner’s job is not to find ways for you to do a project, and they can’t be seen as overtly encouraging a project.
Our team of expert town planners can unravel and interpret planning law to help you discover the best possibilities for your property. All can be revealed in a Preliminary Planning Assessment and Property Strategy Session that exclusively targets the potential development options available to you.
If you’re prepared beforehand with some real opportunities that are permissible on your property before talking to the council, you’re already ahead of the game.
We Make Council Approval as Easy as...
1
Claim Your FREE 30 Minute Consult with one of our Property Consultants
2
Let’s Us Conduct a Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA)
3
We Prepare & Submit Your DA or CDC with a 98% Success Rate*
30,491 +
People
Helped
Helped
387+ YRS
Collective
Experience
Experience
2.5 DAYS
How Often We
Get Approval
Get Approval
$500K
Potential Value
Added to Clients
Added to Clients
Just Some of The 30,491 Properties We Have Advised on to Date...
To Get Approval, Call 1300 008 138 Now
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Questions?
We understand & we have all the answers you need...
*We have a 98% success rate in achieving development approval where our client follows our proven 7 Step formula which we have developed over the past 25+ years and where the client is willing to go all the way to seek that approval on appeal if needed.
The key? Our Preliminary Planning Assessment, inclusive of your personal Project Strategy Session.
To get that success rate it has only come after helping over 30,491 people. We’ve worked hard to smooth out the kinks before they appear by carrying out this Preliminary Planning Assessment (PPA) on your property. It works a treat, especially for what it can do for you, the journey of the project and its future.
Want to learn more about a PPA and how to get one? Book a FREE CONSULT
We could make up a fantasied timeframe to wow you, but to be straight up the length of getting an approval is dependent on the project development type, the local council, who examines your application within council, location of the property within the local council and on the property itself, and the list goes on. The approval process will no doubt take longer than you expect because we are dealing with administrative red tape.
But what our team has done has studied the 30,491+ properties we have been involved in and analysed the 300+ flight years of team council approval experience to create a formidable system.
So to answer the question, how long does it take for us to get council approval? The fastest in our industry.
We have over 20 team members lead by our founder Max Fragar with his 50 consecutive years of town planning and council approval knowledge. The team is made up of skilled town planners, property consultants and designers that we have hand picked to work on your project. It turns out that we’ve had over 300 collective years of experience working and dealing with local government councils.
What does this mean for you? One word, streamline. We know how to talk the council lingo, can perceive even predict the ins and outs of those council hoops of fire, and understand the nitty gritty to work tirelessly to achieve the best outcomes for our clients and their projects.
Check out our current team
Our firm currently has the capacity to assist clients with projects located across New South Wales, Victoria and South East Queensland. We anticipate being able to offer our services to other states in the near future.
Get ready, this could be the best decision you’ll make in the lifetime of your property portfolio.
If you’re looking at a property or already own one and you’re serious about making the property work harder for you, the next step is to book a free 30 minute consultation to speak to one of our property consultants.
In this initial discussion you’ll help us to understand the seriousness of your intent about moving forward with your property plans and to see if we’re the right fit for each other.