DA or CDC: which path suits your build
Two ways to get approval in New South Wales. One is a merit assessment by your council; the other is a tick-box check against a state-wide code. Which one you can use is mostly decided by your land, not your preference.
Complying development, in one paragraph
A Complying Development Certificate is approval against a fixed state-wide standard. If your proposal meets every one of the criteria in the relevant policy, a council or a registered private certifier can issue the certificate without a merit assessment and without neighbour notification. Meet the code and you are approved; miss it by anything at all and you cannot use the path.
A development application, in one paragraph
A DA is a merit assessment. You lodge with the council, neighbours are notified, and the council weighs your proposal against its local planning controls and the submissions it receives. There is judgement involved, which means there is flexibility — and also uncertainty.
Which one you can use
This is usually decided for you. Complying development is not available where the land carries certain constraints, and the exclusions are the reason most people end up on a DA. Common ones include heritage listing or a heritage conservation area, some flood and bushfire situations, and various environmentally sensitive designations.
Your design has to comply too — height, setbacks, site coverage, landscaped area, privacy. One non-compliance, however small, and the CDC path closes.
The planning certificate for the property tells you which constraints apply. Get it early; it is the single most useful document in this whole process.
The trade-off
- CDC is faster and far more predictable, because the answer is determined by the code rather than by an assessing officer. The cost is rigidity: you build what the code allows.
- DA is slower and less certain, but it is the only path if you want something the code does not contemplate, or if your land rules CDC out.
Timeframes vary a great deal by council and by how complete your lodgement is, so treat any number you are quoted as a starting point rather than a promise. A complete, well-prepared application is the one thing genuinely in your control.
A practical note
It is worth asking early, before the design has momentum, which path your block allows. A design drawn for a CDC and then pushed to a DA is usually a compromise in both directions.
Nothing here is planning advice for your particular property. The council or a registered certifier is the only authority on what applies to your land, and both are worth a phone call before you spend money on drawings.