The City of Newcastle Council ('CN') has recently introduced an Accelerated Development Applications ('ADA') initiative to create a new stream of rapidly processed DA's that are deemed to be 'low risk.' The aim is to have these ADA DA's determined generally within 15 days. Wouldn't that be nice?

The development types that may qualify as suitable for the ADA process include dwellings, ancillary residential development (eg sheds, pools, retaining walls, front fences etc), secondary dwellings, demolition work, change of uses, commercial development, light industrial development, signage, strata subdivision, Torrens Title subdivision and modifications to existing development consents.

But, hold-on, it's not quite that easy......

The information requirements for ADA's could possibly be considered to be even more onerous than the submission requirements for regular DA's. This is because there is no option for the council to ask for additional information once it has accepted that the proposal is an ADA and commits to a 15 day turn-around. Very detailed checklists and specific standard templates for a Statement of Environmental Effects for each development type is provided by council as submission requirements for ADA's.

The way the ADA process works is that you submit the proposal and its supporting information as an Accelerated Lodgement Ready ('ALR') request directly to CN prior to lodging it with the NSW DA Portal. CN reviews the ALR and will then confirm whether the proposal qualifies as an ADA. If it does, it will then be determined generally within 15 days. However, if additional information or changes to the proposal are required, or, if it is deemed to not be eligible for CN's ADA service, this will be advised in writing by CN. The proposal would then need to go through the regular DA process through the NSW DA Portal.

There are no second chances for any given proposal with ALR requests, which is why you need to be sure to put your best foot forward the first time for an Accelerated Development Application request. Creedence Planning has experience with ALR requests and have a 100% success rate in having Council accept them as an ADA and determining the DA within 15 days from lodgement.

Why not choose Creedence Planning to see if we can accelerate your DA?