What is a DA?

The abbreviation DA stands for Development Approval, and this refers to a planning application submitted to your local council.

When would you need a Development Approval?

We would apply to council for a Development Approval when we are varying the residential design codes (or R Codes for short), or if we are varying any of the council’s local planning policies/ codes.

Some common examples of this are; wanting to build closer to the boundary than the R Codes permit, or wanting to cover more of the block than is acceptable by the R Codes. Another example would be, if we were wanting to build a shed or an outbuilding on site and the proposed wall or ridge height is higher than is permitted by council.

In all of these examples we would need to submit a development application to our local council in order to be approved to vary the codes or clauses relating to our proposed structure.

The good thing about submitting a development application is this; it gives us the chance to put our argument forward to council. It gives us the opportunity to have our say and show the council why our proposal is a good idea. We would do this by way of a cover letter stating the reasons why council should support our proposal, but it is also important to include the codes or clauses we are wanting to vary, and justifications against these.

By giving us the chance to voice our opinion and provide council with reasons that our proposal should be supported, we have the opportunity to open a line of communication with council so that if our proposal is deemed to be varying the codes too much, we can then work with council to try to come to a mutually agreeable outcome.

In most cases we have seen development approvals supported by council. Whether the first proposal was supported, or subsequent revisions, either way we have been able to provide our clients with a very high success rate.