A NSW town planning team that writes for the assessing officer
URBA is the town planning division of Contrive Consultants Pty Ltd. We prepare the reports that get residential development applications approved across Sydney and New South Wales.
Planners with more than ten years in NSW development
Our team has spent more than a decade inside the NSW planning system: preparing Statements of Environmental Effects, negotiating with council assessment officers, responding to requests for information and standing in front of planning panels. That experience is concentrated on the projects most people actually build: new houses, knock-down rebuilds, dual occupancies, granny flats, townhouses and small subdivisions.
We are deliberately generalist about councils and specialist about housing. The same team has worked with the growth area councils of Western Sydney, the established councils of the middle ring and North Shore, and regional cities from the Central Coast to the Riverina. That breadth matters because every council reads the same state framework a little differently.
URBA sits inside Contrive Consultants Pty Ltd, a civil and stormwater engineering consultancy. When a project needs both the planning report and the stormwater, OSD or flood engineering, one team coordinates both. When it only needs planning, that is all you pay for.
- Residential focusHouses, duplexes, granny flats, townhouses and subdivisions are the core of our work; apartments and mixed use where the site suits.
- State-wide reachSydney, Western Sydney, Central Coast, Hunter, Illawarra and regional NSW, mostly by desktop assessment with local partners.
- Fixed feesA written scope and fee before we start. No hourly surprises.
- Straight answersIf a site will not support what you want, we say so before you spend on design.
- Engineering under one roofCivil, stormwater and flood engineering from Contrive Consultants when the project needs it.
Strategy | Approvals | Possibilities
The three words under the URBA mark are the three things a planning consultant is actually for. They are also the order we work in.
Strategy
Strategy is the work before the drawings. It starts with the numbers a site is bound by: the zone, the minimum lot size, the height and floor space ratio, the frontage, and the flood, bushfire, heritage and easement constraints that decide what is realistic. From those we settle the pathway (a council DA, complying development, or a staged approach), the yield worth designing for, and the order to do things in so that no report is written twice.
For buyers this is the due diligence report before exchange. For owners and builders it is the site check and pathway advice before a designer is engaged. The aim is simple: know what the council will accept before money is spent finding out.
Approvals
Approvals is the core of the practice: getting a development application through the consent authority. That means a Statement of Environmental Effects written to the council's own LEP and DCP, clause by clause, with the proposal figures beside the controls and a clear status against each. Where a control is not met, the variation is justified in the report or in a Clause 4.6 request, so the assessing officer is never left to discover a problem.
It also means staying on the file after lodgement: responding to requests for information, coordinating the other consultants, preparing section 4.55 modifications, and representing the application at a planning panel when a DA is referred.
Possibilities
Possibilities is what a site could become, tested honestly. Most blocks can carry more than their current use, but only within the controls: a second dwelling behind the house, a duplex with a Torrens subdivision, a granny flat for rent, a townhouse scheme near a centre, or a lot split for a family member. The low and mid-rise housing reforms and the dual occupancy changes in R2 zones have opened options that did not exist a few years ago.
We test those options against the real numbers, usually as conservative, balanced and maximum-yield scenarios, and tell you which one is worth pursuing and why. Possibilities are only useful when they are approvable.
The URBA method
Every report follows the same discipline, because that is what makes assessment fast.
Check before you write
Zone, permissibility, lot size, constraints and pathway are confirmed before a word of the report is drafted. If something will not pass, you hear about it first.
Quote the control
Every LEP clause and DCP control that applies is listed with the requirement, the proposal figure and a clear status: complies, variation, or to be confirmed.
Show the source
Map extracts, certificates and instruments are referenced so the assessing officer can verify each finding without asking. Findings in due diligence reports are tagged confirmed, indicative or unknown.
Justify, do not hope
Where a control is not met, the variation is argued on the objective of the control with the numbers shown, in the SEE or a Clause 4.6 request. Nothing is left for the council to discover.
Pick the right pathway
DA, CDC or a staged approach. We recommend the route that is fastest for your site and design, not the one that is easiest to write.
Stay on the file
Lodgement support on the Planning Portal, responses to requests for information and representation at panels when a DA is referred.
From site address to lodged application
Site check
Send us the address and what you want to build. We confirm the zone, permissibility, pathway and the numbers that matter, usually the same day.
Fixed-fee proposal
A written scope and fee for the reports your council will ask for. No hourly surprises.
Compliance review and report
We check the design against every control before we write, tell you what will not pass while it can still change, then prepare the council-ready report.
Lodgement and follow-up
Support assembling the Planning Portal documents, responses to council requests and attendance at panels if needed.
Planning and engineering that talk to each other
URBA is a division of Contrive Consultants Pty Ltd, civil and stormwater engineers based in Bella Vista, Sydney. Stormwater management plans, on-site detention, flood assessments and civil design for a DA can be prepared alongside the planning report, which removes the usual back-and-forth between consultants.
For architectural design, BASIX and NatHERS certification and traffic swept paths we work with established partner practices, and we are happy to work with the designer, surveyor or engineer you already have.
Ready to talk about your site?
Send the address and what you want to build. We will confirm the pathway and send a fixed-fee proposal, usually within one business day.