01
Home business approval
from $1,600
The one-page use you already run from the spare room — hours, staff, clients on site, parking. Usually the quickest approval we lodge.
Hay Street, West Perth
Ashfield PlanningTown planners in West Perth
Development applications, change of use, grouped dwellings and subdivision. We read the scheme so you don’t have to — and we quote a fixed fee in writing before we start.
Members of the Planning Institute of Australia
Fixed fees, quoted in writing
Lodging since 2014
The Envelope
Lot 42 · 500 m² · Bayswater
Ashfield Planning · fixed feeDWG AP‑42 · REV A
$5,700
development application, 3 grouped dwellings
Setbacks are indicative, for the drawing — the deemed-to-comply setback depends on wall height, boundary walls and your local scheme. We check yours.
Application type
Residential density
R-CodesDwellings
3
dwellings on the lot
Advertising
Happy with the shape of it? We’ll put this scope and this fee in writing, with the council’s fee shown at cost.
What the fee covers
The drawing, as text
Everything you set here lands in the enquiry below — book the proposal and we’ll have the drawing on screen when we call.
Fixed professional fees, GST included
What a planning job costs before you ring anyone
These are our fees for the planning work — the report, the plans coordination, the council conversation and the follow-up. They do not include the local government’s own application fee.
02
Single-house development application
from $2,400
Where the scheme or a special control area means the house needs planning approval before the building permit — heritage, a design review area, a variation to a setback.
03
Change of use, commercial tenancy
from $3,200
A shop that was last approved as a hairdresser and is about to become a café. Use class, parking, waste, hours, grease trap — and the advertising the council will insist on.
04
Subdivision advice + WAPC application
from $3,600
Two lots. Feasibility against the R-Code, the survey brief, the WAPC form and the conditions that arrive with the approval.
05
Grouped dwellings development application
from $4,800
Two dwellings. Site analysis, the deemed-to-comply table, the design principles argument where a variation is needed, and the report the officer actually reads.
06
Each extra dwelling
+$900
Every dwelling past the second adds plan checking, a parking and open-space calculation, and another line in the assessment table.
07
Each extra lot
+$800
Every lot past the second on a subdivision — frontage, access, minimum and average site area, services.
08
We run the 14-day advertising period
+$550
Letters to adjoining owners, the site sign, and a written summary of submissions with our response to each one.
The council’s application fee is set by regulation — paid at cost, confirmed before we lodge. It is calculated from the estimated cost of development under the Planning and Development Regulations, so it belongs to your project, not to us. We show you the current schedule, you pay it, and we never mark it up.
Who you’re dealing with
Planners, not agents — and we say what we are not
- Practising since
- 2014, from Hay Street, West Perth
- ABN
- 00 000 000 378
- Membership
- Planning Institute of Australia
- Registration
- WA has no statutory registration for planners — we say so, and we show you our work
- Professional indemnity
- $2M, certificate on request
- Lodged in
- 18 WA local governments
Demonstration reviews
Three jobs, told straight
Grouped dwellings · Bayswater
“We had a 500 m² back yard and a builder telling us three was impossible. Ashfield drew the envelope at R40, showed us where the driveway had to go, and the report answered the officer’s questions before he asked them.”
Change of use · Victoria Park
“They read the use table and told me my café fell inside the existing approval — no application, no advertising, no fee. I’d budgeted four thousand dollars for nothing. That phone call cost me nothing.”
Subdivision · Gosnells
“Our first surveyor had the access leg on the wrong side and we’d have lost a lot. Ashfield caught it before the WAPC form went in and re-drew it in a week. Fixed fee, no argument about the extra work.”
Where we lodge
West Perth is the office. The metro is the patch.
We work in the local governments we know the officers in. Regional councils are done by video, with a site visit if the file needs one.
The office — Hay Street, West Perth
Local governments we lodge in
Swan River & coast
Questions we get every week
Straight answers, including the ones that lose us work
How long does a development application take?
The statutory clock is the council’s, not ours — 60 days for an application that isn’t advertised, 90 where it is, and the clock stops every time an officer asks for more information. What we control is the quality of the lodgement, which is what keeps the clock running. We quote the current turnaround for your local government at the first meeting, from what we’re seeing that month, not from a brochure.
Do I even need approval for a patio or a shed?
Often not. A great many patios, sheds and carports are deemed-to-comply and need only a building permit. If that’s your job, we’ll tell you on the phone and charge you nothing — it’s a five-minute check against the scheme and the R-Codes, and we would rather lose the fee than sell you an application you don’t need.
What’s the difference between planning approval and a building permit?
Planning approval is your local government (and sometimes the WAPC) deciding whether the use and the form belong on that lot — density, setbacks, parking, bulk, amenity. A building permit is a certifier confirming the thing is built to the National Construction Code. Planning comes first where it’s needed; the permit follows. We do the planning half and hand the approved plans to your building designer or certifier.
Can you guarantee approval?
No, and nobody may. The decision belongs to the local government or the development assessment panel, and any planner who promises you an outcome is selling something they don’t own. What we do guarantee is that you’ll know the weak points in your proposal before it’s lodged — and if we think it will be refused, we say so while you can still change it.
Do you do the drawings?
We do the planning report and the assessment: site analysis, the deemed-to-comply table, the design principles argument, the schedule of variations, the council correspondence. The architectural drawings come from your building designer or architect — we brief them, mark up what has to change, and coordinate the set that gets lodged. If you don’t have a designer, we’ll name three who work well in your council.
What happens if a neighbour objects — or if it’s refused?
Submissions are normal, and most are answerable. We write a response to every one and the officer weighs them against the scheme, not against a headcount. If the application is refused, merits review goes to the State Administrative Tribunal — we don’t act there. We hand you to a planning lawyer and stay on the file so the planning evidence is ready and consistent.
Are the setbacks in the drawing above the real ones for my lot?
They’re indicative, for the drawing. Deemed-to-comply setbacks in the Residential Design Codes move with wall height, wall length, boundary walls, major openings and the density code, and your local planning scheme can override them with a local development plan or a special control area. The Envelope shows you the shape of the problem — we check the numbers against your lot before anything is lodged.
Book a fixed-fee proposal
Tell us the lot and the idea. We’ll tell you the fee.
A proposal is a one-page scope: the application type, what we lodge, what you supply, the fixed fee, and the council fee shown at cost. It costs nothing and it’s yours to take elsewhere.
We’d call you back within one business day — and if the job doesn’t need an application at all, that’s the call you get.
Ashfield Planning
Hay Street, West Perth WA 6005
Monday to Friday, 8:30am–5:00pm
(08) 9000 0378
Thanks — we’ve got it.
We’d call you back within one business day with the fixed fee in writing, the council’s own application fee shown at cost, and a plain answer on whether you need an application at all.
Demonstration page — nothing was sent. On the real site this posts to the practice’s CRM and books the call.
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