Assessment and Decision Process

Close-up of a person's hand using a black pen to fill out a form with printed lines and text.

Council must consider all issues raised within any submission before making a decision on the application. Below is some important information in relation to Council’s consideration of submissions.

Property value concerns cannot be considered

Whilst Council understands that the impacts observed by a nearby development are individual to each person, some matters raised in submissions cannot be considered as they are outside of the authority of the legislation to be considered.

For example, concerns around property values as a result of a proposal are often raised in submissions but are not a matter Council can take into consideration in determining whether an application should be approved or refused.

Number of submissions

Please also note that it is the substance or merit of the issues raised that has a greater impact on whether or not a proposal is supportable, rather than the sheer number of submissions received.

Furthermore, in line with advice from the NSW Government, only unique submissions objecting to the development, received during the notification period, are counted for the purposes of delegation to the Parramatta Local Planning Panel, however, all submissions are read and considered in the assessment of a development application.

For a submission to be considered unique, it needs to be in substance unique, distinctive or unlike any other submission.

Petitions are not considered unique submissions in line with the above advice. They will count as only one submission.
Pro-forma or form letters, where the contents are identical to other letters, are not considered unique submissions. They will count as only one submission.
Individual households represent one objection to a DA regardless of each objection received or signatures provided for that household.

Ten unique submissions objecting to a Development Application requires the application to be determined by the Parramatta Local Planning Panel. All submitters are invited to attend the panel meeting.

In most cases, senior Council management can determine applications with less than ten submissions.

Tracking application progress after submission lodgement

You can track the progress of an application online via the DA Tracker.

You can also call and speak with our Development Unit on (02) 9806 5050.

Disclosure requirements

Gifts and donations given to City of Parramatta councillors or to employees of the City, must be disclosed by law when you lodge a DA or a public submission objecting to or in support of a DA.

This also applies if you lodge a planning application and/or submission to the Minister or the Director General.

Find out more information here.