Institute responds to SealSMART changes
Brisbane City Council has made changes to the SealSMART initiative removing the ability for Building Format Plans to be assessed under this process until further notice. Building Format Plans have recently come under greater scrutiny by council’s Development Assurance Auditing Program.
Key points:
- Changes to SealSMART remove ability to assess Building Format Plans
- Move will incur time and monetary costs by delaying delivery of townhouses and apartments
- Institute wrote to council called for reinstatement of previous SealSMART process
- Council encouraging developers to use existing pre-lodgement processes.
Brisbane City Council has made changes to the SealSMART initiative removing the ability for Building Format Plans to be assessed under this process until further notice. Building Format Plans have recently come under greater scrutiny by council’s Development Assurance Auditing Program.
Members of the Institute have been reporting that the exclusion of Building Format Plans from this expedited process can significantly delay the delivery of townhouse and apartment style residential dwellings.
Effectively, this action adds an additional 15 business days to the assessment of these plans, potentially adding significant costs to these developments for home buyers. Moreover, concerns are with the property industry being caught off guard with little to no warning or information being available to members.
The Institute wrote to council highlighting that this could potentially place unnecessary rental and housing stress on the community in costs, but also the personal stress for homebuyers waiting to move into their new homes. The Institute has called for the reinstatement of the previous process.
Council are encouraging development professionals to utilise their existing pre-lodgement services for plan sealing. The pre-lodgement service can assist to prepare applicants, acknowledging the tight timeframes during the final stages development and the importance of receiving a sealed plan as quickly as possible.
In the pre-lodgement meeting, members can also request advice on matters such as compliance with conditions, condition clarification, documentation requirements and any matters in relation to the endorsement of a standard/building/volumetric Survey Plan. More detail on this is available on council’s website here. If members have any concerns or have additional questions, please contact council’s Development Services.
Please contact Policy Executive, Robert Tily via email below or call (07) 3229 1589 to pass on your direct feedback on these changes.