The Blind Spot
The zone, an overlay, a setback or a protected tree was never checked at concept stage. The design is drawn around a site that does not behave the way the plan assumed.
Check the Code before you draw.
Approvia screens your site against the South Australian Planning and Design Code (the Code), then a qualified planner interprets what it means for your plan. Planning risk shows up while changes are still cheap.
- Built around the South Australian Planning and Design Code.
- Rule-based screening, reviewed by a qualified planner.
- An independent consultancy. Councils and assessment panels make the decisions.
The costly discovery comes too late.
Most planning problems are visible in the Code well before a design is fixed. They tend to surface later, when changing course means redrawing, re-quoting and waiting. Three patterns come up repeatedly.
The Cost of Delay
Each round with the council keeps the holding costs running and can leave a builder's quote out of date. The delay is rarely one event; it is several small ones that add up.
The Policy Trap
A proposal that needs to be assessed on its merits is lodged as if it met the standard tests. Without the supporting evidence, it stalls at the first request for more information.
We start at concept, not lodgement.
The order matters more than the tools. Each step below happens before money goes into full documentation.
The judgement stays with a planner; the consent stays with the assessing authority. The technology speeds up the reading, and it does not replace either.
- 1.
Screen the site
Rule-based screening reads your address against the Code: zone, subzone, overlays and the numeric tests that apply.
- 2.
A planner interprets it
A qualified planner reviews the output, corrects what a rule cannot see, and writes down what it means for your concept.
- 3.
Adjust the design with your team
You and your designer change the scheme while changes are still inexpensive.
- 4.
Help with lodgement, if you need it
If you go ahead, we can prepare and lodge the application. Whether it is granted is decided by the council or assessment panel, not by Approvia.
Choose the service for your stage.
Start with the question you are trying to answer. Each card names the stage and links to the page that explains the scope.
Find the page written for the decision you make.
The questions differ depending on whether you are funding the project, designing it or building it.
A planner walks through what the Code means for a real site.
Developers and investors
You need to know what a site can carry before you buy or draw
See residential infill planningOwners building or renovating
You want to understand the rules on your own land, including heritage, trees and neighbours
Plan a custom homeArchitects and designers
You want planning constraints in hand at the start of design
See what we hand to design teamsSend the address and we'll read the Code.
A planner replies by email or phone with a preliminary read of the Code for your site. It is a first look, not a consent, and not a commitment on either side.
Approvia is an independent town planning consultancy. Assessment and statutory consent decisions are made solely by relevant councils and assessment panels under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016.