Council's New Accelerated Development Application Process

Published on 04 July 2024

Assessment times are now faster thanks to a Clarence Valley Council initiative which fast-tracks certain projects such as building a new dwelling, secondary dwelling (<60m²), or adding a new shed, deck, or swimming pool to your existing house.

The new Accelerated Development Application (DA) process, which was launched 1 July 2024, will make approvals for simple residential DAs faster as part of an initiative to approve compliant development quickly and help boost housing supply.

Clarence Valley Council’s Director Environment and Planning Adam Cameron said this service will be available to most types of simple residential developments that comply with the planning rules and are located on sites that are considered relatively low risk.

“Council is offering this service to encourage and reward DAs that comply with applicable development standards and controls, as well as to improve our processing times of these high-volume, simpler DAs.

“If your application qualifies for this process, Council staff will aim to determine your application within 20 days or less from when the DA has been accepted and lodged with Council.

“To be eligible, applications must comply with Council’s planning controls and be free from key environmental constraints.”

Two checklists have been created to determine if your development meets all the criteria. The checklists are designed so that if you answer ‘No’ to all the questions, your development qualifies for the Accelerated DA process. If you answer ‘Yes’ to any question, your development will not qualify for this service and will be assessed under normal DA processes.

To learn more or to see if your development qualifies, view Council’s Accelerate Development Applications webpage.