Accelerated Development Applications

Gordon Edgar • July 27, 2022

The new "freeway" for DA assessment.........

The City of Newcastle Council ('CN') has recently introduced an Accelerated Development Applications ('ADA') initiative to create a new stream of rapidly processed DA's that are deemed to be 'low risk.' The aim is to have these ADA DA's determined generally within 15 days. Wouldn't that be nice?


The development types that may qualify as suitable for the ADA process include dwellings, ancillary residential development (eg sheds, pools, retaining walls, front fences etc), secondary dwellings, demolition work, change of uses, commercial development, light industrial development, signage, strata subdivision, Torrens Title subdivision and modifications to existing development consents.


But, hold-on, it's not quite that easy......


The information requirements for ADA's could possibly be considered to be even more onerous than the submission requirements for regular DA's. This is because there is no option for the council to ask for additional information once it has accepted that the proposal is an ADA and commits to a 15 day turn-around. Very detailed checklists and specific standard templates for a Statement of Environmental Effects for each development type is provided by council as submission requirements for ADA's.


The way the ADA process works is that you submit the proposal and its supporting information as an Accelerated Lodgement Ready ('ALR') request directly to CN prior to lodging it with the NSW DA Portal. CN reviews the ALR and will then confirm whether the proposal qualifies as an ADA. If it does, it will then be determined generally within 15 days. However, if additional information or changes to the proposal are required, or, if it is deemed to not be eligible for CN's ADA service, this will be advised in writing by CN. The proposal would then need to go through the regular DA process through the NSW DA Portal.


There are no second chances for any given proposal with ALR requests, which is why you need to be sure to put your best foot forward the first time for an Accelerated Development Application request.


Why not choose Creedence Planning to see if we can accelerate your DA?

By Gordon Edgar March 22, 2026
Now that you have decided that you need to object to a DA, before you swoop, it's time to get the lie of the land and inform yourself of what the likely outcome of such a move might be.  A relevant question is - how effective have Creedence Planning Objections been for our clients? We have kept statistics on the outcomes of every objection job we have been involved in since recommencing trade in 2022. One point to make, we do not submit objections to development that we cannot find any problems with. All of the objections below were in response to DA's that we considered to be unreasonable in some way. Councils and Council town planners will react to objections in any number of different ways. Whilst we can guarantee the quality and accuracy of our work, we cannot control the level of professionalism or due diligence that will occur in the field of development assessment in local government. That is up to the individuals concerned. Council planners are always caught in-between the competing interests of applicants and objectors and navigating that conflict can often be difficult and stressful for them. Sometimes, they will simply form a different view that does not align with yours, or ours. However, as you will see below, in most cases, efforts are made to address the concerns that are raised. We hope this table of DA objection outcomes is useful to you.
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