Development application update

I did some research on the ACT Planning website this morning, and found out a few interesting things.

The DA for our complex was in fact originally lodged on 8/6/09, but did not clear the initial checks at ACT Planning. It was submitted again on 24/6/09. The ACT Planning website shows final lodgement for the application that's currently on there as 9/7/09. I don't wish to besmirch ACT Planning, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it had taken them the two weeks from 24/6/09 to register all the documents on their system as lodged.

The DA is available for looksee on the ACT Planning website here. They stopped accepting public comments on 5/8/09.

Today is just under 7 weeks from the final lodgement date of the DA. There is actually a statutory limit on how long ACT Planning can take to consider an application - the limit is 6 weeks if no third party provides them with a submission, or 9 weeks if a third party does. This gives us the 6-9 weeks originally quoted by the builder.

It's a bit difficult to tell from the ACT Planning website, but the application is still listed as "active" so I suppose it must still be under consideration. There's no third party submissions posted on the ACT Planning website, but they might be confidential. My hope is that the DA will be approved any day now, worst case scenario, 2 weeks.

I'm a little bit peeved by the delay - we're about a month behind schedule before building has even started - but at least I have a better idea of what's going on now.

I've seen enough Grand Designs to expect this sort of thing, but I was hoping the delays wouldn't start so early!