Town Planning Project Management
Running the planning side of a project end to end: the consultants, the councils, the documentation and the programme, held together by one team.
- One point of accountability across the whole approval programme
- Consultants briefed, coordinated and held to the programme, not just our own scope
- Multi-site and multi-council programmes run consistently rather than site by site
- We stay on the project after consent, through modifications and certification
The planning work on a development is rarely done by one party. There is a designer, a planner, a traffic engineer, an acoustic consultant, a surveyor, a heritage consultant, a certifier, and a council assessing all of their output together.
Each of them does their piece competently. The time is lost in the gaps: the report that assumed a different floor plan, the consultant nobody briefed until week nine, the council request that sat with the wrong person for a fortnight.
Prestige Town Planning takes ownership of that whole picture. We scope the approval programme, appoint and brief the consultants, coordinate their documentation so it agrees with itself, manage the councils and authorities, and report back to you as one voice rather than seven.
For operators running several sites at once, the same logic applies across the portfolio. One team, one approach, applied consistently, rather than a different planner and a different standard in every city.
Why Choose Prestige Town Planning
One point of accountability
You have one number to call about the planning programme, and one party answerable for it. Not a coordinator who escalates to a planner, and not a planner who refers you to the consultant whose report is late.
We manage the consultants, not just our own scope
Most planners will tell you what reports an application needs. We procure them, brief them against the actual proposal and the actual controls, review what comes back, and chase the ones running behind. The briefing is the part that matters: a specialist report written against a superseded design is worse than no report, because you pay for it twice.
Multi-site programmes run as programmes
Where a business is opening or fitting out several sites, the work is not several unrelated applications. It is one approach applied to different councils, with the lessons from each site carried into the next. We've run this across multi-site fitness and commercial rollouts, and the second site is always faster than the first.
We're still there after consent
Approval is the middle of the project, not the end. Designs change, conditions get tested, modifications become necessary and certification has to be coordinated. We stay across all of it rather than handing you back a consent and disappearing.
Our Town Planning Project Management Services
On a single complex site you might need half of these. On a multi-site programme, all of them.
Approval programme scoping
A full read of what the project needs before anything starts: the approvals required, the sequence they have to happen in, the consultants involved, the realistic timeframes and where the risk sits.
Consultant procurement, briefing and coordination
Identifying which specialists the project needs, obtaining fees, briefing them properly against the proposal and the controls, reviewing their output for consistency, and managing the revisions when the design moves.
Council and authority liaison
A single channel to council, and to the other authorities a project has to satisfy: water and utility authorities, roads authorities, fire authorities, heritage bodies and concurrence agencies. We handle pre-lodgement meetings, requests for information and negotiation on conditions.
Design review against the planning controls
Reviewing the design against the controls as it develops, rather than after it’s finished. This is the single cheapest intervention available on any project, and it is routinely skipped.
Multi-site and multi-council rollout programmes
Managing approvals across a portfolio of sites: consistent documentation, a repeatable approach, comparative timelines across councils, and consolidated reporting so you can see where every site sits at once.
Programme and critical path management
Tracking the approval programme against the project programme, so that the planning dependencies are visible to everyone who is making decisions against them.
Stakeholder, neighbour and objector management
Managing the notification and submission process, responding to objections, and dealing with neighbours and community stakeholders where a project is contentious.
Post-consent coordination
Handover into the certification stage, modification applications where the project moves on from the approval, and management of consent conditions through construction.
Reporting
Regular written reporting to owners, boards, financiers and franchisors in a form they can act on, rather than status updates that require interpretation.
Project review and takeover
Where a project has stalled or changed hands, an independent read on where it actually stands: what has been approved, what has been lodged, what the consultants have and haven’t delivered, and what recovering it realistically involves. Projects are rarely where the last status report said they were.
Project with too many moving parts?
If you’re chasing five consultants and a council officer yourself, that’s the problem this service exists for. Tell us where the project is and we’ll tell you what taking it over would involve.
Our Project Management Process Explained
We don’t just coordinate meetings. We own the approval programme and everyone feeding into it, from first scope through to consent and past it. Here’s how it runs.
Scope &
Programme
We map what the project actually requires, in what order, and what the realistic timeline looks like. This is where the unrealistic assumptions get found.
Team
Assembled
We identify the specialists needed, obtain fee proposals, and brief them against the proposal and the controls that apply to it.
Design
Coordination
We run the consultant team through documentation, reviewing for consistency and managing the revisions as the design develops.
Assessment
Management
Applications lodged, councils and authorities managed through assessment, requests for information answered, conditions negotiated.
Consent &
Beyond
Consent obtained, conditions mapped, handover into certification coordinated, and modifications managed as the project changes.
Who This Advice Is For
- Developers pursuing multi-unit residential, mixed-use, commercial or industrial projects
- Business operators opening, relocating, expanding or fitting out premises, including hospitality, retail, medical, childcare, education and fitness
- Commercial property owners and investors testing what a site can support
- Architects and designers who want the council pathway managed while they focus on the design
- Property owners planning a dwelling, dual occupancy, extension or secondary dwelling
- Buyers doing planning due diligence before they exchange
If you’re still at the “is this even worth pursuing” stage, that’s the cheapest point in the whole process to get an answer. Ask before the site is bought, not after.
Proven Results That Speak for Themselves
With hundreds of successful projects across Australia, our numbers say it all.
Project Management FAQs
What does a town planning project manager actually do?
We own the planning side of a project from end to end: scoping what approvals are needed, appointing and briefing the consultants, coordinating their documentation, managing councils and authorities through assessment, and reporting back to you. The role exists because on most projects nobody owns the space between the consultants.
How is this different from just engaging you for a development application?
Engaging us for a DA gets you that application prepared, lodged and managed. Project management covers everything around it: the consultant team, the other approvals, the programme, the authorities beyond council, and the work that continues after consent. If your project is one application, you probably don’t need this. If it’s several, or it’s complex, or it runs over a long period, you probably do.
Do you replace our architect or our construction project manager?
No. We manage the planning and approvals workstream and coordinate the consultants feeding into it. Your architect keeps designing and your construction project manager keeps building. We’re the party making sure the approval side doesn’t become the thing everyone waits on.
Can you manage approvals across multiple sites at once?
Yes, and that’s where this service earns its keep. Running a portfolio as one programme means the documentation is consistent, the approach is repeatable, and what’s learned at the first council is applied at the next. We’ve done this on multi-site commercial and fitness rollouts.
What if we already have consultants engaged?
That’s normal and it’s fine. We work with the team you have, brief them properly, and only recommend additions where there’s a genuine gap. Replacing consultants mid-project is expensive and rarely the right answer.
How do you charge for this?
It’s scoped per project, because the effort varies enormously between a single complex site and a fifteen-site rollout. We’ll set out the scope and the fee basis before starting, so it’s agreed rather than accruing.
Can you take over a project that's already gone wrong?
Yes. Recovery work is a normal part of this. The first step is usually a review of where the project actually is, as opposed to where the last report said it was, and an honest read on what recovering it involves.
Do you manage projects outside New South Wales?
Yes. Most of our work runs through New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and we take on projects in other states as well. Interstate work is run from our Central Coast office, with site visits, council meetings and authority meetings as the project requires.
One team, accountable for the whole approval programme
If the planning side of your project involves more parties than you can reasonably chase, that's the problem worth handing over.