New pre-lodgement meeting service

From 19 November 2018, the City will begin operating a new and improved pre-lodgement meeting service.

This service provides applicants and their consultant team the opportunity to meet with City officers early in the development process and receive feedback and information requirements prior to lodging a development application.

Effective pre-lodgement meetings will reduce the amount of information requests and the time required by the City to complete the assessment of the application, thereby reducing costs to the applicant and the City through improved efficiency. This service will also assist the City in meeting the reduced legislative timeframes for assessing development applications.

How the new service will work

A dedicated Technical Pre-lodgement Meeting Officer (TPMO) will be responsible for arranging and coordinating pre-lodgement meetings, providing a single point of contact for this service. The TPMO will provide the applicant with an agenda, set expectations for discussion, and co-ordinate accurate minutes shortly after the meeting.

The planner assigned to the pre-lodgement meeting will contact the applicant 24 hours prior to the meeting to advise of key issues as well as any resolved issues during an internal pre-meeting. Any resolved issues may reduce the attendance for both the applicant’s consultant team and City officers.

Most pre-lodgement meetings will occur within a dedicated pre-lodgement meeting room which will include the relevant IT equipment to display drawings and materials included as part of the pre-lodgement request. A supervising planner or senior planner will chair the meeting, with discussions following the meeting agenda.

The way applicant’s structure agenda questions for a pre-lodgement meeting benefits the efficiency and effectiveness of the meeting. A well-structured agenda question will give the City officers better direction in considering an applicant’s request, resulting in more accurate discussions and advice. For more information, download the guide to structuring agenda questions.

City officers will base their comments and advice on the information lodged with the pre-lodgement meeting request. New drawings/supporting material showing a changed proposal tabled at the meeting will be minuted and assessment comments will be provided at a later stage outside of the pre-lodgement meeting service.

To assist in better coordination between pre-lodgement meeting advice and the subsequent assessment of the development application, minutes provided to the applicant now includes an area for the applicant to provide a response. Applicants are encouraged to complete this section and include a copy of the minutes as part of their application material, identifying how the proposal responds to the pre-lodgement advice.

Applicants have two ways to lodge a pre-lodgement meeting request:

1. Email: Applications are accepted via email to townplanningmeeting@goldcoast.qld.gov.au and should contain the City’s Pre-lodgement Meeting application form, drawings, plans and any supporting documents required. This option is available for applicants who wish to receive an invoice from City for payment of their application fees to be made later and not immediately at the time of lodgement of the request. Payment of fees needs to occur before the pre-lodgement meeting is scheduled.

2. E-Services: City’s online application form. All documents can be submitted directly to the City via an online portal. At this time this service only contains a pay now option, requiring immediate payment of the application fee in order for your application to proceed.

Next steps

The new process applies to all pre-lodgement meeting requests lodged from 19 November 2018.

Further opportunities to expand the City’s pre-lodgement meeting service are being investigated and further improvements will occur in 2019.

If you have any questions regarding the new service please contact either Amanda Antcliff on telephone 07 55828956, Dale Schroeder on telephone 07 5582 8670, or Di Kling on telephone 07 5582 8415.