The Assessment Process: Timelines, RFIs and Determinations

Once your DA is lodged via the NSW Planning Portal and accepted by council, it enters an assessment pipeline: administrative review, referral to internal specialists (engineers, heritage advisors, environmental health), public notification, external referrals where required, and finally assessment and determination.

The statutory 'clock' is the assessment timeframe councils report against, but it stops every time council issues a Request for Information. A DA can show 40 assessment days while sitting in the system for nine real months. Your responsiveness to RFIs is the one part of the timeline you control.

Most DAs are determined by council staff under delegated authority. Contentious applications, those with significant objections, or those seeking major variations may go to a Local Planning Panel — a body of independent experts — which adds time but also removes the decision from purely internal politics.

Determinations come in three forms: approval (usually with conditions of consent), deferred commencement (approval that only activates once specific issues are resolved), or refusal. Conditions are legally binding — read every one before accepting a consent.

If refused, options include a Section 8.2 review back to the council, or an appeal to the Land and Environment Court within the statutory window. Good pre-lodgement advice makes these rare paths rarer still.