06 Dec, 2017

Faster Development Approvals with e-Planning

Seeking planning approval has just got easier with an update to the City of Adelaide’s online process for development applications, as part of the State Government’s suite of planning reforms.

e-Planning is just one facet of the implementation of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016, the biggest modernisation of South Australia’s planning system in over 20 years.

Anyone undertaking building work or seeking to change the land use of a property may need development approval. The latest enhancements to the online process make it easier and more user-friendly to lodge and track applications. It will reduce costs for applicants, councils and ratepayers, and deliver faster turnarounds of decisions.

Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Martin Haese, said that an online planning system supports growth in the city by providing a better service.

“A more efficient and effective planning approval process will enable people to lodge and track their application easily and speed up the approval process, enabling owners to get on with enhancing or building their property.

“People will also gain fast access to reliable planning information, publications, maps and data, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Council has already reduced the time it takes to approve planning applications by 25 per cent over the last year. These enhancements to the online process will improve the turnaround time even further.

“People often find seeking development approval time consuming and confusing. ePlanning will simplify the process and provide a more user-friendly experience.”

While lodgement and tracking has always been available online, the system and processes have been enhanced, resulting in an online process that has a better look and feel, is more user friendly and also mobile device friendly.

The first series of changes to the City of Adelaide’s online planning system include:

• A cleaner, more user-friendly online application form
• A mobile-responsive design so that applications can be submitted on any device
• In-built property address lookup, validation and enquiry and search functions
• Requirement to pay application fees online and upfront during submission which will facilitate faster processing
• Internal business process enhancements to enable greater efficiencies.

For more information, please visit www.cityofadelaide.com.au/DA

Paula Stevens