Lodge submitted DAs within an average of 7 days.
Councils should formally lodge development applications submitted via the NSW Planning Portal as soon as practical and within an average of 7 days of submission. Key performance indicators are: complete an adequacy review within 4 days of submission, and issue an invoice within 4 days of submission giving the applicant 3 business days to pay.
This item is part of the Minister's Environmental Planning and Assessment (Statement of Expectations) Order 2026, which sets out what the Minister expects of councils in carrying out their planning functions. It deals specifically with the 'submission to lodgement' stage of a development application (DA) — the gap between when an applicant submits a DA on the NSW Planning Portal and when the council formally lodges (registers) it so that assessment can begin. The Order expects councils to move applications through this administrative front-end quickly, on average within 7 days of submission, with two specific key performance indicators for the review and invoicing steps.
All NSW councils in their role as consent authority for development applications. The expectation applies to councils generally where they lodge DAs submitted to them via the NSW Planning Portal.
It is triggered when an applicant submits a development application to the council (as consent authority) on the NSW Planning Portal. The expectation governs the period from that submission until the council formally lodges the DA.
The Order relates to the Minister's powers under section 9.6(1)(b) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, which allow appointment of planning administrators or conferral of council functions on planning panels where performance is unsatisfactory. Performance is monitored via the council league table using NSW Planning Portal data, and sits alongside the determination timeframe targets (90/80/65 days) and the broader Faster Assessments program.
Councils should lodge development applications for which they are the consent authority as soon as practical and within an average of 7 days of submission.
Within 4 days of submission the council should complete a review of the adequacy of the development application.
Within 4 days of submission the council should issue an invoice, providing the applicant 3 business days to make payment.
As a consent authority, Kiama Council is expected to meet these front-end timeframes: reviewing adequacy and issuing an invoice within 4 days of a DA being submitted on the Portal, and lodging within an average of 7 days. For a typical Kiama residential DA this means the clock on formal assessment should start quickly. The source does not carve out small coastal councils, so the expectation applies to Kiama the same as elsewhere, though the Department states it will consider a council's individual circumstances if expectations are not met.
“Council should lodge development applications for which it is the consent authority as soon as practical and within an average of 7 days of submission using the following key performance indicators:”
“within 4 days of submission complete a review of the adequacy of the development application”
“within 4 days of submission issue an invoice providing the applicant 3 business days to make payment.”
“Some councils are taking an unreasonably long time to lodge development applications once submitted on the NSW Planning Portal by applicants, well over the expectations listed above.”
Reproduced from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (planning.nsw.gov.au), © State of New South Wales, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Text extraction may introduce minor formatting artefacts — rely on the official source for anything decision-critical.
This is an unofficial reproduction provided for convenience. It is not the official version of the legislation. For the official, in-force version, see legislation.nsw.gov.au.