Release notes

PlanSA's ePlanning platform is routinely updated to introduce new functionality, enhance the customer experience and address technical issues.

After each update, changes are documented as release notes and published on PlanSA.

PlanSA components

PlanSA's ePlanning platform is made up of different online components:

PlanSA is committed to ensuring its ePlanning system is responsive to the needs of its customers.

To view or to check on the status of a current enhancement project, visit the PlanSA system enhancements.

System updates are made fortnightly. After each update, system enhancements are documented as Release Notes and published on PlanSA.

Requests for system enhancements can be submitted to the PlanSA service desk via PlanSA@sa.gov.au.

2026

DAP

Features

Lapse of Development Authorisations (Regulation 67 – Expiry)

The DAP system now supports lapsing of development authorisations in line with Regulation 67 (expiry) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017 and section 126(2) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016.

Relevant Authorities (RAs) can now lapse expired consents and applications when:

the operative end date is reached for consents

the substantial completion date has been reached for Development Approvals, where all mandatory commencement and completion notifications have not been submitted.

Once lapsed, the consent or application status will update to “Lapsed (Expired)” across relevant dashboards and the public register. Additionally, lapsed consents or approvals will not appear on the Section 7 Data Extract.

A Lapse link will become visible under the Related Actions menu tab of the application when the expiry date criteria has been met. Lapsed consents and applications are no longer treated as active, and restrictions apply (e.g. no variations, notifications or inspections can be captured). Applicants can request an extension of time (EOT) to reinstate lapsed consents and applications, and when EOTs are granted by the applicable RA, the system will restore the consent or application to its status before the lapsed event occurred.

The restored status will be visible on the public register and consents or applications will become visible on the Section 7 Data Extract.

The lapse function does not apply to Crown Applications.

Building Indemnity Insurance (BII) Exemptions (SA Housing Trust)

Enhancements have been implemented to support BII exemptions in line with the Building Work Contractors Act 1995.

A new option “Not Applicable – SA Housing Trust” is available during Building Consent Assessment and Development Approval when capturing insurance. This option is only applicable for SA Housing Trust (SAHT) applications that are submitted by users in the SAHT user organisation.

When the option is selected during Building Consent Assessment for Insurance by the RA, then the reason for why BII is not required does not need to be entered.

The Section 7 data extract will indicate that building work is exempt from building indemnity insurance according to section 5(9)(b) of the Building Work Contractors Regulations 2011.

Fixes

Simplified beta Public Notifications dashboard

The Public Notifications dashboard has been streamlined to improve usability. Several filters have been removed, including consent status, public notification task, sign on land, notification completion status and cancellation status.

The displayed data has also been simplified through the removal of the following columns: primary contact, consent status, public notification task, sign on land, finished and cancelled.

To ensure consistency across all dashboards, some labels have been standardised.

  • “Consent allocated to” is now “Allocated”
  • “Notification Start” is now “Start Date”
  • “Notification End” is now “Close Date”

Multi-classed building/ building work (class 10A and/or 10B) - Edit insurance fix

Where a building/building work contained multiple classifications, including a class 10A (open or private garaged, shed) or 10B (fence, mast, antenna, swimming pool), on editing the insurance details post decision, the system is designed to create a separate building/building work for the class 10A or class 10B, which was causing insurance information not to be saved.

This issue has been fixed and ‘Edit insurance’ for a multi-classed building/building work containing a class 10A and/or 10B can now be saved.

PlanSA portal

Features

Outline consent public register

A public register is now available for 'Outline Consent' applications on the PlanSA portal.

View the public register.

Development Application Processing (DAP) system

Features

Assess Consent task hidden when assessment clock paused

Visibility of the Assess Consent task in My Tasks is dependent on the assessment status; it is hidden when the assessment clock is paused and displayed when the assessment is active.

Ability to view adhoc inspection outcome from dashboard

The Inspection Outcome ID hyperlink has been reinstated, allowing applicants to view ad‑hoc inspection outcomes from the dashboard.

Development approval date visibility in submit building notification dashboard view

The Submit Building Notifications dashboard now displays the development approval date, including a filter option, to easily identify applications where building work has commenced or not yet commenced.

Consistency updates made to dashboard views – development approval in-progress and completed

The following updates have been made to in-progress and completed development approvals for relevant authorities (RAs) and applicants:

  • changed 'owner' to show 'applicant' contacts (RAs) and 'primary' to 'owner' contacts (applicants')
  • shows 'lodged' date
  • ability to filter 'Not allocated' approvals in-progress or completed approvals (RAs)
  • label updates for filters and columns for consistency
  • shows development approval 'Commencement Date' and 'Completion Date'
Fixes
Restrict inspection outcome to location council Access to the Record Inspection Outcome function is now restricted to the location council.
Resolved development approval decision date not showing A fix to resolve the issue, where approving a development approval extension of time (EOT) caused the decision date to be cleared. The decision date will now remain populated and display the original development approval decision date (not the EOT decision date).
Restored missing building notification and rectification numbers The total number of notifications has been restored to the Building Notifications and Rectification Notifications menu items.

Development Application Processing (DAP) system

Features

Building and rectification notifications aligned to new dashboard format

Building Notifications and Rectification Notifications pages now match the new dashboard format. It includes separate dashboards for submitted notifications and notifications with a decision outcome.

The Decision Outcome dashboard now shows all decisions, instead of only the five most recent.

Latest version

Formatting enabled for referral refusal reason

Formatting has been enabled in the Referral Refusal Reason text box, allowing the use of dot points, numbering, italics and bold font. The same formatting will display on the Decision Notification Form (DNF).

Latest version

Land Division Certificate – clearance requirements

When a land division clearance requirement is recalled, the system will require the user to provide a reason for the recall, which will then be shown in the clearance requirement view.

Deemed consent enhancements for combined planning and land division applications

Applicants can now issue a deemed planning consent for applications that combine the planning and land division consents.
When a deemed consent is issued, the combined consent is automatically split into separate planning and land division consents, with the planning consent granted and the land division consent remaining under assessment; outstanding referrals are recalled and public notification is cancelled where applicable.
The deemed consent process is also streamlined, with the system finalising the process after 10 days if no action is taken by the relevant authority, generating and issuing the DNF.
In line with legislation, the operative period for a deemed consent has been updated from 1 year to 2 years.

Code Amendment Tracking System (CATS)

Features

Code
Amendment
Tracking System
(CATS) – upload
additional
document

The proponent is now able to submit additional documents at certain stages of the code amendment process.

PlanSA Portal

Fixes

Public
Development
Application
Register –
duplicate
locations and
stages

The Public Development Application Register has been updated to correct issues where:

  • duplicate locations were being displayed for development applications that contain multiple locations and multiple child title
    locations
  • duplicate stages were being displayed for development applications with multiple building consent stages
  • elements were not displayed when the development application did not have a planning consent

Power BI

Features

Workload Management Report

The Average Assessment Days for Decision tile on the Workload Analysis page has been enhanced to offer drill-through capabilities. Users can access detailed consent decision information including the decision timeframe directly through the tile.

Development Application Processing system (DAP)

Features

Accredited professional (ACPs) disengagement from planning and building consents

ACPs can now resign as the Relevant Authority for a planning consent or building consent before a decision is made.

When an ACP resigns:

  • the affected consent is reset back to the initialise status
  • assessment tasks and referrals are recalled
  • the applicant is notified to nominate a new ACP to continue the assessment.

This change supports circumstances where an ACP is unable to continue with an assessment and aligns with Section 90 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (the Act).

This update does not affect consents that have already been granted.

Late referral responses

Referral bodies can now submit or update referral responses after the referral due date, provided the application has not yet been decided.

This improvement ensures referral advice can still be considered when it is received after the due date, while maintaining decision certainty by preventing changes once the consent has been granted.

Latest version

‘Your Applications’ home page –replaced applicant column with owner column

On the ‘Your Applications’ home page, the ‘Applicant’ column has been replaced with the ‘Owner’ column in the ‘Applications in Progress’ tab and added to the ‘Pending Your Action’ tab in the new dashboard.

Building notification reset enhancement

The following users can reset building notifications or rectification responses that were submitted in error, provided no inspection outcome has been recorded:

  • Location Council users can reset notifications for building work within their council area
  • State Planning Commission (SPC) users can reset notifications for out‑of‑council areas

The reset option is only available where no inspection outcome of “Satisfactory” or “Unsatisfactory” exists. Inspection records and historical documents are retained following a reset.

Latest version

Building certification requirements for Crown and essential infrastructure development authorisations

A new requirement has been introduced for state agencies (and those prescribed and/or sponsored for the purposes of essential infrastructure), to formally submit certified documents in relation to building work, following development approval. These requirements apply to building work approved under Sections 130 and 131 of the Act.

When a development approval is granted under Sections 130 or 131 where building work is to be done, the system will now create a task for the applicant to upload and record building certification details. The task will remain open until such time as the applicant has submitted the last building certification.

Latest version

Separate decision notification forms (DNFs) for each consent

DNFs are now generated separately for each consent (planning, building, planning and land division or land division) when that consent is granted.

This ensures applicants receive a decision notice as soon as each consent is decided, rather than waiting until development approval is completed when the Relevant Authority for development approval is the same as for the preceding consent.

Latest version

Fixes

Correction to inspection date and ‘Inspected By’ (user details) in DAP inspections report

The inspections report within DAP has been updated to correct issues with the ‘Inspection Date’ and ‘Inspected By’ fields.

When recording and viewing inspections:

  • the ‘Inspection Date’ now displays the exact date entered by the user, including past dates; previously, the report incorrectly showed a date one day earlier due to a date‑conversion issue in the reporting view
  • the ‘Inspected By’ field now displays the inspector’s full name (FirstName LastName); previously, the report showed the user’s email address instead of their name.

SA Planning Portal

Features

Request a change to the Planning and Design Code

The ‘Request a change to the Code’ page has been removed from the portal home page and links have been redirected to the ‘Support Form’ page.

The support form page has been updated to include references to:

  • requesting a change to an error or operational issue with the Code
  • suggesting a technical change or policy improvement to the Code to be considered by the SPC, as part of its regular Code updates.

Development Application Processing system (DAP)

Fix

Deemed To Satisfy Code Rules Checklist document not generating

Deemed to Satisfy Code Rules Checklist document is now generating as expected.

Development Application Processing system (DAP)

Features

Staged building consent relevant authorities (RA) selection

Applicants can now select different RAs for each building consent stage, offering greater flexibility in staged approvals. Applicants can also reassign staged building consent to a different RA when applying for the next consent.

When an applicant applies for a COO, the system will now:

  • display the relevant RAs for each completed building consent stage were building works and building classifications have been captured
  • include the location council by default, consistent with existing behaviour
  • allow the issuing RA to reassign COO issuance to any RA that assessed the relevant building works.

RAs can reassign any stage to another RA when needed, and the verification clock will reset upon reassignment to maintain compliance and accurate timelines.

Latest version

Removed Start Assessment button required to start consent assessment process

The ‘Start Assessment’ button, previously used by the relevant authority to begin the assessment process for the consent, has been removed from the consent page. Before this change, the relevant authority was required to click the button to activate full functionality for relevant authorities and referral bodies during assessment.

The system now automatically creates an Assess Consent task at the start of assessment and closes it automatically once a Decision is recorded. On the My Tasks dashboard, the Task Name will now show as Assess Consent, instead of Commence Assessment. The task will remain open until a decision is made and the Decision Notification Form (DNF) is generated, at which point it will be completed automatically.

All applicable consent tabs and actions are automatically enabled for relevant authorities and referral bodies.

Referral bodies can now issue RFIs immediately upon referral, without waiting for a manual assessment start.

Following this change, as soon as the consent status changes to ‘Under Assessment’, for referrals that are distributed, the following tasks are automatically made available to the referral body: receiving referral requests, sending RFIs, and providing responses.

The relevant authority can now see all tabs in the menu of the consent page, including RFIs, Public Notification, Planning Info, Conditions, Notes, and Decision, and complete all relevant tasks without needing to select the ‘Start Assessment’ button.

Latest version

Cancellation of variation fee advice

For minor variations where a fee invoice has been generated but the unpaid invoice is then cancelled by the RA, the system will automatically revert the variation back to 'variation assessment'. The RA can then re-enter or change their variation decision and can choose to charge or waive the fee as applicable.

DAP

Features

Referral advice

Section 122 (12) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 now states that referral body advice is to be made public only after the consent is granted.
As a result, relevant referral advice will only be viewable on the development application register after a decision on the relevant consent has been made.

Landowner consent/revised development application form

A development application can now only be made by a person who owns the land constituting the site of the proposed development, unless the owner has consented to the application being made (under section 119(3)) of the Act.

The submission declaration on the development application form has been updated to confirm the landowner has consented to lodge the application.

The new provision reads: In accordance with section 119(13) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016, I confirm that the owner of land has consented to the making of this application and that all documents attached to this application have been uploaded with the permission of the relevant rights holders. It has been acknowledged that copies of this application and supporting documentation may be provided to interested persons in accordance with the Act and Regulations.

Submission declaration page improvements

Changes have been made to the disclaimers when submitting an application to make these clearer. These changes include:

  • further information regarding interests on a certificate of title
  • clearer language around the native vegetation declaration
  • the previous disclaimer in relation to the Electricity Act 1996 is now under the heading ‘Building Safely near Powerlines’.

The Certificate of Title information question has been removed for new applications. For applications already lodged, the question remains visible within the Planning Information section and system generated snapshot documents at verification and consent decision.

Latest version