Approval and site plan questions

Plot plan, block plan, lot plan: which names mean the drawing council wants, which mean something else, and how a site plan differs from a floor plan.

A site plan shows your property from above with boundaries, existing buildings and the proposed structure. This is what councils and certifiers expect on it.

What decides the cost of a site plan in Australia: who draws it, how often it changes, and when a surveyor is worth paying for instead.

A land survey plan fixes where the boundaries legally are; a site plan shows your project on the lot. Which one you need, and what decides a survey’s cost.

What a council application needs on the site plan, the three ways to get one, and how to draw one yourself, anywhere in Australia.

An easement is a mapped right over part of your land, usually for drainage or services. How to find easements on your lot, and what building over one involves.

Building over or adjacent to a sewer needs the consent of the main’s owner. Clearances, footings, stormwater easements and who owns the main in each state.

A BAL rating is the bushfire attack level a building is designed for, and a BAL assessment sets it for one site. The levels, flame zone and each state’s map.

A flood overlay does not ban building, it changes the questions. What flood mapping means, what councils ask for, and how to check your lot before you design.

Two approvals get called council approval. What each covers, what a private certifier checks, and where the council still decides.

How close you can build to a boundary depends on the boundary, the height of the wall and your state’s rules. What a setback measures, and each state’s rule.

Site coverage is the share of your lot under roof: how it is worked out, what counts, where your limit comes from, and why it decides small projects.

An overlay is a mapped layer that adds rules to part of your land: the ones that come up most, what each changes, and how to find which apply to your lot.

Concreting a yard turns on where the water goes, how much garden is left, the manholes and the levels. What decides it, who decides, and what to draw.

A heritage overlay protects how a place or a street looks, so work the street can see often needs planning approval first. What it covers and who decides.

Most states have a way to sign off work already standing. What the certifier or council checks, what happens if it falls short, and what a buyer should ask.

The lot and plan number identifies your land on every application. Where to find it, what it points to, and why the certifier asks for it.

Councils keep building records for many houses. How to ask for them, what they hold, what to do when there are none, and what a site plan needs from them.

An aerial photo shows what is built but not where the boundaries run, and its scale is only close. How to turn it into a site plan the certifier can read.

Your wind region comes from where the lot sits on the national wind map, and the class from the ground around it. How to find yours, and why the supplier asks.

Councils list development applications on their trackers, and some states keep a portal too. Where to search near you, and what a tracker shows.

Start from the boundaries and their lengths, add what stands on the lot, then the new work with its distance to every boundary, all to one scale.

Three sets of rules decide what you can build on a lot: the council’s planning scheme, the state’s building rules and the overlays mapped over it.

In Queensland some small work is exempt from building approval within the limits the state sets. What usually is, what is not, and who decides.

In Victoria a small structure can be exempt from a building permit and still need a planning permit. Who decides each, and how to check your lot.

In Western Australia some small work needs no building permit and many outbuildings can go ahead without development approval, within limits.

Sometimes. Small earthworks may be exempt, while larger cut or fill, fill in a flood area or work near a boundary can need the council’s approval.

Queensland development applications use the state’s forms: DA Form 1 for development generally, Form 2 for building work only. Which goes with which.

Acid sulfate soils are harmless until they are dug up or drained. Where they are mapped, what work brings the question, and who decides what follows.

Overland flow is stormwater running across the ground when the drains overflow. How councils map it, what the overlay asks for, and who decides.

A special building overlay marks land in Victoria that stormwater can flood when the drains overflow. What needs a planning permit and who has a say.

An existing services plan shows the sewer, stormwater, water, gas, power and phone lines already on a lot. When you need one and how to find the lines.

A site plan template works as a checklist of the parts and the layout. What every plan carries, how the sheet is set out, and what a template leaves out.

Any program that holds a true scale can draw a site plan, but none of them knows your lot. What each kind of program does well and how to check the result.

You need an owner builder permit when the value of the work passes the line your state sets. What it covers, what it does not, and who issues it.

You can often read a neighbour’s plans while their application is advertised. How to find them, what stays private, and how to make a submission.

Building certifier cost has no set price: most certifiers set their own fee. What the quote covers, what adds to it, and how to compare two of them.

A DA fee in NSW follows a state scale tied to the estimated cost of the work, and other bills follow it. How DA and CDC fees are worked out and compared.

A complying development certificate is one approval for planning and building, for work that meets every fixed standard in NSW. Who issues it, and when.

Exempt development is minor work New South Wales lets you build without a DA or a certificate, while it meets every standard. What the standards test.

DA approval means the planning authority has agreed to a development application, usually with conditions. What it allows, and what comes before you build.

You need a development application when the planning rules for your lot ask for one, usually because of the zone, an overlay or work past the state’s limits.

Victoria keeps two permits, and backyard work can need one, both or neither. Which work usually takes which, who issues each, and which comes first.

ResCode is the common name for Victoria’s residential standards on siting, overlooking and overshadowing. What it covers, and who applies it to your work.

The R-Codes are Western Australia’s residential design codes: how homes and outbuildings sit on a lot. The density coding, the setbacks, and who decides.

PlanSA is South Australia’s online planning portal, and development applications are lodged through it. The steps, the two consents, and the public register.

Notifiable work is Tasmania’s middle tier of building work: a building surveyor certifies the design and the council is told, without a building permit.

Which states ask a new home for a rainwater tank, where it sits on the site plan, when it needs approval, and what the first Australian rain study found.