Advice

There are three ways that you can obtain development advice from Council before lodging your development application (DA): Duty Officer Enquiry Duty officer enquiries are simple, everyday development enquiries that can be answered within approximately 15 minutes. Examples of duty officer enquiries include: How many car parking spaces do I need for my development? Can I subdivide my land and what is the minimum lot size? Do I need a DA to put a sign up? How much will it cost to lodge a DA for a new dwelling house?

To submit an enquiry to the duty officer, obtain a DA fee estimate or Find a DA, please use the following links:

Development Research and Interpretation

Development research and interpretation requests are more advanced development enquiries that will take more than approximately 15 minutes to answer.

Examples of development research and interpretation enquiries include:

• Advice on dwelling entitlements.
• Interpretation of historical development consents and consent conditions.
• Detailed advice on planning controls that apply to a site or development.
• Detailed advice on the NSW planning system.

All development research and interpretation enquiries will be answered in writing and a fee of $280 for up to the first 2 hours + $117 for each additional hour or part thereof is payable.

Complete and e-mail a Development Research and Interpretation Form to customer.service@camden.nsw.gov.au.

Formal Pre-DA Advice

Formal pre-DA advice allows you to present plans of proposed developments to Council and obtain feedback prior to lodging your DA.

Pre-DA advice is strongly encouraged for the following developments:

• Large subdivisions, residential flat buildings, multi dwelling housing, significant commercial developments and complex industrial developments.
• Developments that will be determined by the Sydney Western City Planning Panel.
• Developments with a capital investment value greater than $2 million.
• Complex developments including those on environmentally constrained sites.
• Developments that are likely to attract a large number of submissions from the public.
• Developments that will involve planning control variations that you wish to discuss with Council staff.

Complete and e-mail a Pre-DA Advice Form to customer.service@camden.nsw.gov.au. You must also provide concept plans and relevant supporting information with the application.

Council charges a fee for most pre-DA advice services. The fees to be paid are outlined in the tables below. There is no fee payable for pre-DA advice (advice letter only) relating to single dwellings and/or secondary dwellings.

Single Dwellings and/or Secondary Dwellings (i.e. New Dwellings, Alterations and Additions to Existing Dwellings and/or New Secondary Dwellings/Granny Flats)

Other Development (Not Being Within the Single Dwelling and/or Secondary Dwellings Category)

*Residential accommodation that is three or more storeys in height, commercial developments that are three or more storeys in height and other developments requiring advanced urban design assessment will be considered for referral to Council's Design Review Panel.

Please note that pre-DA advice is preliminary in nature and that no detailed assessment of the site or development is undertaken. Following lodgement of your DA and a detailed assessment, additional issues may arise that are not detailed in the pre-DA advice that may require the development to be modified or additional information to be provided. Council may also determine that the development cannot be supported on the site.

In addition, many developments require separate approval from State government agencies such as the Department of Planning and Environment Water and the NSW Rural Fire Service. Council staff cannot provide specific details on the requirements of these agencies and separate contact should be made with them before lodging your DA.

Development and Heritage

For information regarding development and heritage, please refer to Council’s Heritage Planning and Heritage Related Development webpages.