Ditching Delays – How To Have Your Supporting Documents Dealt With Swiftly BY COUNCIL

Ditching Delays – How To Have Your Supporting Documents Dealt With Swiftly
Issue 2012-04

Sunshine Coast Council is always happy to accept documents in support of development applications on CD as well as in hard copy format.

While it is perfectly acceptable to submit your supporting documents in hard copy format only, putting a copy on CD as well can help speed up the development approval process as the documents get to the decision makers more swiftly.

However, it only works when what’s submitted exactly matches what’s on the CD, so if you are submitting a CD of documents, please ensure that what’s on there is precisely the same as your hard copy documents.

In addition, council does ask that anyone submitting documents on CD as well as in hard copy pay particular attention to three matters.

• File types.  Please ensure that pdfs are used and no Word documents are submitted.  While some plans and drawings may be specifically requested to be in a specialist program format, generally pdfs are preferred and should be lodged in the first instance.

• File sizes.  It is preferable that each document is smaller than 40MB.  While council’s systems can readily handle larger file sizes, supporting documents are put on the PD Online service, and anything too large can be difficult for users of this to open.

• File naming conventions.  It’s best if all your documents on the CD are easy to identify and find.  Because of this, include all of the following document types on your CD and name your documents as follows.

For new applications, include your application forms; covering letter and the development        application.  For the development application documents, name each part with its number of the series and its content.  For example:

        Development Application Part 1 of 5 - Development Report
        Development Application Part 2 of 5 - Proposal Plans
        Development Application Part 3 of 5 - Engineering Report & Traffic Impact Assessment Report
        Development Application Part 4 of 5 - Contamination Assessment
        Development Application Part 5 of 5 - Photographs

For responses to information requests, please follow the same naming convention, with    each part being numbered and named.  For example:

        Response to Information Request Part 1  of 5 - Covering letter
        Response to Information Request Part 2 of 5 - Architectural Plans
        Response to Information Request Part 3 of 5 - Stormwater Management Report
        Response to Information Request Part 4 of 5 - Geotechnical Report
        Response to Information Request Part 5 of 5 - Environmental Assessment Report


If you want to check you have everything needed in support of your development application, please contact Development Information on 5475-PLAN (5475-7526) or drop into one of the Development Information counters at Maroochydore, Nambour, Tewantin or Caloundra.




Catherine Sinclair | Development Services Liaison Officer
Director's Unit, Development Services
Sunshine Coast Council
Ph: 07 5475 9871
Email: catherine.sinclair@sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au