A pre-lodgement meeting (also called a pre-DA or pre-application meeting) is a paid, minuted meeting with council’s assessment staff before a DA is lodged, where you present the concept and they tell you what the assessment will focus on. It is worth the time and fee when the project involves a clause 4.6 variation, a DCP departure you need to test, a constrained site (flood, bushfire, heritage, trees) or a housing type the council sees rarely in that street. It is usually not worth it for a compliant single house, a standard duplex on a clean lot in a growth area, or anything that could be a CDC. The written advice isn’t binding, but on a townhouse or multi-dwelling DA it routinely saves a round of requests for information and sometimes a refusal.
Key takeaways
- Most NSW councils offer a formal pre-lodgement service with a fee scaled to the size of the development, and provide written minutes or an advice letter afterwards.
- Council’s pre-lodgement advice is not a determination and does not bind the assessing officer or a planning panel, but the minutes carry weight if the same issue comes up later.
- The meeting is most valuable when you bring a resolved concept, a site analysis and a list of specific questions rather than a finished DA set.
- Typical lead time is two to six weeks from request to meeting, so it needs to be programmed early in the design phase.
- For simple, compliant projects a phone call to the duty planner or a written enquiry gives most of the benefit at no cost.
What a pre-lodgement meeting actually is
The Department’s guide to the DA process lists pre-lodgement as the first stage, before the application is lodged. Councils run it as a service. You submit a request form, concept plans and a fee, and council convenes a meeting with a planner and, for larger or more constrained sites, an engineer, a landscape officer, a heritage adviser or a traffic officer. Blacktown’s pre-application meeting page is a typical example: a completed form, plans by email, a virtual meeting with council officers, and a fee that scales with the complexity of the proposal. Penrith, Camden, Liverpool, The Hills and Parramatta all run comparable services, with their own forms and fee schedules.
What you get back is a set of minutes or an advice letter that records the issues discussed, the council’s preliminary position on each and the documents it expects with the DA. That letter is the deliverable.
When it pays for itself
A variation you need to test
If the design will breach an LEP standard and needs a clause 4.6 request, the pre-lodgement meeting tells you whether council’s planners see any prospect of support before you spend money on the full request. Officers won’t commit, but the difference between “the panel has supported variations of that order on sloping sites” and “council has consistently refused height variations in that precinct” is worth the fee on its own.
A constrained site
Flood-affected lots in Penrith and Hawkesbury, bushfire interface lots in the Hills and Wollondilly, heritage conservation areas in Parramatta and Cumberland, lots with remnant trees in Blacktown: the meeting brings the specialist officer to the table, and their expectations on floor levels, asset protection zones, streetscape or tree retention shape the design before it’s drawn.
A housing type unfamiliar to the street
Townhouses or a manor house in a low density street that has only ever seen houses is exactly the DA a council wants to see early. The meeting surfaces the officer’s concerns on streetscape, bulk, parking and the interface with neighbours, and the design answers them before notification starts.
When to skip it
| Project | Pre-lodgement meeting | Better alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Compliant single house or alterations, no constraints | Not needed | Written enquiry or duty planner call on one or two specific controls |
| Standard duplex on a clean growth area lot | Rarely needed | Check the Growth Centre precinct plan and DCP; consider CDC under the Low Rise Housing Diversity Code |
| Granny flat | Not needed | Confirm the Housing SEPP and DCP controls; usually a CDC |
| Duplex or house with a DCP variation | Useful | Duty planner call may be enough if the variation is minor |
| Townhouses, manor house, small subdivision, clause 4.6 request, constrained site | Worth the fee | None |
The fee and the lead time are the cost. On a small compliant project the two to six week wait for a meeting can be longer than the time saved, and the questions can be answered by reading the DCP carefully and phoning the duty planner.
Preparing so the meeting is useful
Officers see a lot of pre-lodgement meetings where the applicant arrives with a finished design and wants approval in principle. That’s not what the meeting is for and it leads to a defensive conversation. Our planners prepare the following:
- A site analysis plan. Survey, trees, neighbouring windows and private open space, drainage direction, street trees, constraints from the section 10.7 certificate.
- A concept, not a DA set. Site plan, floor plans, elevations and a massing view, at a level that shows the intent but can still change.
- A compliance table. Every LEP standard and the key DCP controls with the proposed figure beside them, and departures highlighted. Officers respond to candour about departures far better than to discovering them.
- A short list of questions. Five or six, specific. “Would council support a 1 m rear setback variation for the garage given the neighbour’s garage is on the boundary” gets an answer. “Any concerns” gets a lecture.
- A note of the pathway options. If part of the project could be complying development, ask whether council sees any issue with a staged approach.
In the meeting, someone takes notes independently of council’s minutes, and any differences get raised in writing within a week.
Reading the advice letter
The letter will say the advice is preliminary, not binding, and given without a full assessment. All true. It also tells you three useful things. The list of required documents is a direct guide to what completeness check will look for. The issues the officer raised first are the ones the assessment report will lead with. And any statement that council “would not support” something is a signal to redesign or to prepare a serious merit case, not a bluff to be called at lodgement.
When a DA is lodged following a pre-lodgement meeting, the SEE should reference the meeting, list each issue raised and state how the design responds to it. That gives the assessing officer, who is often not the person who attended the meeting, a clean line from advice to design.
Where pre-lodgement meetings go wrong
- Too early. A meeting with no concept and no site analysis produces generic advice to “comply with the DCP”.
- Too late. A meeting with a finished DA set produces a list of changes to a design nobody wants to change.
- Treating the advice as approval. The officer who attended may not assess the DA, and a planning panel is not bound by any of it.
- Ignoring the document list. The letter tells you the DA will need a traffic report or a geotechnical report. Lodging without them guarantees an RFI.
Frequently asked questions
Is a pre-lodgement meeting with council binding?
No. The advice is preliminary, given without a full assessment, and doesn’t bind the assessing officer or a planning panel. It does record council’s initial position, which is useful if the same issue is raised differently later.
How much does a pre-DA meeting cost in NSW?
Each council sets its own fee in its fees and charges schedule, usually scaled by the type or estimated cost of the development. Check the current schedule on the council’s website; the fee is generally modest compared with the cost of an RFI or a redesign.
How long does it take to get a pre-lodgement meeting?
Typically two to six weeks from a complete request to the meeting, depending on the council’s workload, then one to three weeks for the written minutes. Program it into the design phase rather than treating it as a last step before lodgement.
Do I need a pre-lodgement meeting for a duplex?
Not usually for a compliant dual occupancy on an unconstrained lot. It becomes worthwhile if the design needs a DCP variation, the site is flood, bushfire or heritage affected, or the council area has a track record of contested duplex DAs.
Deciding whether a pre-lodgement meeting is worth it is part of the pathway advice we give at the start of a project, and the site analysis and compliance table we bring to it come straight out of our development due diligence report. If you’re planning townhouses, a duplex or a rebuild in Blacktown or elsewhere in Western Sydney, we can attend and run the meeting, or you can request a fee proposal for the full DA.