Council D.A./Development Applications & Complying Development
New Terrain Landscape Design has experience creating landscape plans to satisfy the requirements of Development Application with Councils across the Blue Mountains, the Greater Sydney Region and beyond. As fully certified Landscape Designers and Horticulturists, it is our job to be familiar with your Council’s guidelines and the requirements for Landscape Plans that can help get your D.A. approved.
When building or modifying your property, you may be required to supply a landscape design as part of the submission process for your Council D.A. or CDC development application. Each Council has its own Development Control Plan or DCP rules for meeting the criteria of an approved landscape design can vary greatly from one Council to another. Some Councils have very basic guidelines that are easy to follow while others have a long list of requirements on things such as the size of the property, the slope, bushfire risks, setbacks, easements, ratios of hardscape to soft landscaping and even lists of specific plants and trees that are allowed and not allowed to be planted in a landscape. It all can be a bit overwhelming for someone who is just trying to get their project built.
Contact us today to see how we can help you get your plan approved!
Meeting the Requirements of a D.A. Landscape Plan
Working with homeowners, architects, and builders, New Terrain Landscape Design creates Landscape Concept Plans that solve the tricky problems on a site. Some plans in some Councils- especially those in the Blue Mountains may require specialist advice and reports such as an Arborist Report, Bushfire Report, Hydrologic / Stormwater Report, Geotechnical Report, and more. New Terrain works closely with specialists to interpret and integrate their report findings into a Landscape Plan that complies with the site’s restrictions and requirements.
DCP / Development Control Plan Guidelines
Each Council has a Development Control Plan, or DCP, which sets out rules from everything on a landscape plan such as the amount of paving permitted, the height and style of fences allowed, what provisions you must have in place for stormwater and more.
Some Council DCP documents may only be 70 pages whereas the latest Blue Mountains DCP is over 850 pages long- it’s our job to help you navigate through these documents and tick the boxes you need for a successful design. Our experience working with these documents and requirements means we can help you navigate through the requirements to get you a compliant design.
Below are some basic considerations that a homeowner will need to submit a Landscape Plan to a Council.
What kind of documentation do you need?
Many Councils require that your landscape plan is developed by a certified landscape designer or landscape architect. New Terrain meets those qualifications by having a qualified Landscape Designer and Horticulturalist on staff.
As part of your Landscape Concept Plan, we deliver professional, high quality PDFs of CAD drawings of your site. The information in these drawings include a landscape concept plan drawing, hardscape and softscape installation detail drawings and a list of site specifications. Also included are locations of all proposed plants and trees including a complete, detailed list of plant names, quantities and sizes which will satisfy the requirements of Council as well as the landscapers hired to do the landscape installation.
Some Councils, such as the Blue Mountains, also require an in-depth Site Assessment as part of the Landscape Plan. These Site Assessments may need to document existing site features such as on-site vegetation, invasive weeds, neighbouring plant species and the character of the street of your property. The need for this type of documentation and the level of detail required by Council is factored in to the cost of your individually tailored Landscape Plan.
The option to add a mood board with images of proposed plants and site materials to the documentation is also available.
Do you know your Zone?
While each council has its own rules and regulations regarding general landscape site design requirements, some of those rules can change depending which Land Zone your site resides in. For example, depending on whether your property is situated in a Residential Zone, an Environmental Living Zone or an Industrial Zone, there can be wildly different landscape requirements that you’ll need to meet to get approval. Additional considerations such as slope constraints, bushfire ratings, Deferred Matters and easements can complicate things even further. Some people are surprised to discover that the properties across the street and sometimes even next door can be under a completely different set of guidelines!
New Terrain Landscape Design can help you navigate through the complicated and confusing regulations to create a custom plan that will get approved.
What kind of Specialist Advice Will You Need?
The most common reports that a homeowner might be asked to provide alongside a landscape plan for a D.A. might be and Arborist Report, Bushfire Report, or Stormwater Management Plan.
Arborist Report: If your proposed construction has any proposed works that may impact trees on your property or your neighbour’s, an arborist report may be required by Council. A qualified Level 5 Arborist will have to go on site and assess any trees that may be impacted by your development by assessing things like tree size and health, Tree Protection Zones and Structural Root Zones. In some cases, if your development impacts your neighbour’s trees or certain important trees on your property so severely that they might not survive, Council may ask you to change your design.
Bushfire Report: With our recent history of severe bushfires, a bushfire report may be required for any site where it has been determined either by Council or the RFS that your property might be at risk. The results of the bushfire report may dictate things like the amount of tree canopy cover allowed on your site, distances between plantings and type of plants used on your site.
Stormwater Plan: For some sites, directing stormwater overflows may be more difficult that simply specifying that it flow to the street. If your site has a large amount of impervious areas (areas where water cannot naturally drain directly into the ground) such as a house footprint or driveways and paving, there may be an abundance of water during a storm that will need to be properly directed away from the site. If your site slopes away from the street so that water would naturally drain towards your neighbour’s property or the bush, for example, then a stormwater plan may have to show how the water will be directed so as not to cause damage such as the use of an infiltration trench. Council may require that a stormwater management plan prepared by a hydrologic engineer will detail how this water will be successfully managed.
Working with Natives
Most Councils in the Sydney region, including the Blue Mountains, have a requirement that a certain number of native plants must be used in a Landscape Plan for a Development Application. Some Councils also have a list of locally specific natives that should be used in their applications. Our familiarity with a wide range of native plants available means we’ll find plants that will work for you and add value to your home.
We love incorporating Australian native plants into our garden designs. Aside from exhibiting a wonderful array of colours and textures, they have a number of features that make them great to work with in a landscape design. While it’s a misconception that natives are plant-and-forget specimens, Australian native plants can be more readily adapted to the challenging soil and climate conditions of Australia than exotic species. Natives can also be used to bolster our fragile communities of native insects, flora and fauna.
Depending on where you live, Council may require some or all of the plants you intend to plant in your garden to be plants native to Australia. The huge variety and availability of gorgeous Australian natives now available at nurseries means that an Australian native garden doesn’t have to look like a dry bush garden anymore.
Testimonials:
“Joe did a great job with my landscaping plans, his communication was A+ and the plans sailed straight though Council without even a revision (that’s saying something for BMCC). Thanks for your help Joe”
-Matthew Hobbs, Hobbs Group
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