If you've ever been frustrated by how long the turnaround time for council approvals can be, then Complying Development Consents, or CDCs, might be just what you've been looking for.

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Essentially, a CDC allows you to undertake certain building works without requiring you to get approval from council. You do still need to go through council, or a principle certifier, however because specifically an approval is not needed, this dramatically cuts down your turnaround time.

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This is possible through the built-in requirements of CDCs. These requirements include a criteria of set-backs from boundary lines, the height you're building to, the size of your home, extension, or alteration, and more.

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Some of the works that fall into this category include sheds, swimming pools, fences, granny flats, or second dwellings.

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To make sure that you know what these complying items are, you can check with your architect, builder, draftsman, or even your town planner. Once you can meet these criteria, you don't have to through the lengthy process of a development application, and in some cases, a refusal on that application. They are automatically approved as long as you have met the criteria.
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This means you can have a turnaround time of an approval of approximately 21 working days, opposed to a normal development application that has an average of around about 70-75 working days.

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This is fantastic as you can be confident in the outcome of you investing in plans, engineering, town planning requirements and so on; as long as you make sure you're working within the criteria of the CDC, you can be sure your works are going to be approved.

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