People can be reluctant to engage a Town Planning Consultant whether they think they can represent themselves or possibly think engaging a consultant will be too expensive. In my 40 years working as a Town Planner both in Local Government, State Government and as a private planning consultant I would have to say these opinions could be rather short sighted.
In many instances like non-complying land uses under the former Development Act or now restricted development with the new Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act it is really mandatory to have representation of a qualified Planner. A Town Planner has the experience and ability to represent the client properly and develop a cognisant argument why non-complying or restricted development should be allowed when it is specifically stipulated that what is proposed is generally inappropriate in that particular locality.
More commonly with reference to the current Planning and Design Code (PDC) a lot of development is ‘code assessed-performance accessed’ and usually requires public notification. Aside from whether there are representations/objections received or not it needs to be demonstrated how the proposal would have merit and how it meets the required technical specifications and performance standards as set out in the PDC. If representations are received then the concerns they raise need to be properly addressed to the satisfaction of the approving authority. Similarly under the old Development Plan system a lot of development was ‘on merit’ where the applicant was required to establish the proposal was meritorious and would contribute to the character of the locality and/or enhance the amenity of the area. It is a Planner who can best demonstrate the technical and performance specifications required to satisfy PDC and also address the concerns of representors.
Representations often arises where a person usually a neighbour has received notification of a development or sees the require notification notice physically fixed to the subject property. Upon examining the plans they often have concerns about issues such as overlooking, overshadowing, bulk, scale, form, noise or a host of other potential issues they believe will affect them if the development goes ahead. Often the issues are quiet technical requiring sight lines, sections, and shadow diagrams, elevations, reducing building height or similar information or amendments. These issues are often best dealt with by professionals who deal with such matters regularly and are familiar with the technical interpretations.
The situations mentioned above are a few of the more common reasons most people would need the services of a Town Planner but there are numerous other roles that Planning Consultants undertake. In my experience if it’s your development proposal or a development going up next door to your house there is already sufficient at stake to justify engaging the services of a Town Planning Consultant.