Complying Development (CDC): The Fast-Track Approval Pathway

Complying Development is a combined planning and construction approval that can be issued by a council or a private certifier — often in as little as 20 working days. If your proposal meets every numerical standard in the relevant code, it must be approved. No merit assessment, no neighbour notification.

The main rulebook is the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 — known as the Codes SEPP. It covers new houses, alterations and additions, granny flats, swimming pools, decks, sheds, fences and demolition, provided your land and proposal meet the criteria.

The catch is that complying development is ruthlessly black and white. One metre too close to a boundary, a site in an excluded area such as some heritage conservation areas, or a lot that doesn't meet the minimum size — and the pathway closes. There is no 'close enough'.

That rigidity is also its strength. Where a DA involves discretion, negotiation and months of waiting, a CDC is a checklist. Our toolkits help you test your proposal against the code before you pay a designer or a certifier, so you know early whether the fast lane is genuinely open to you.

If your proposal misses CDC by a whisker, don't despair — a small design adjustment can sometimes bring it back inside the code. That conversation is exactly what a planning consultation is for.