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.

2024

DAP

Features

Statement of Compliance template

The latest version (5) of the "Statement of Compliance Form" can now be generated, from the development application "Building Notifications tab" (for relevant authorities) and "Notifications & Inspections tab" (for applicants).

Report Generation when Consent on Hold

Assessment reports are now able to be generated when consents are on hold.

The ‘Generate Assessment Report’ and ‘Generate Panel Assessment Report’ buttons are now visible on the consent page when the application is on hold.

Accredited Professional (AP) portal update - New Report for APs

The Accreditation Portal now includes a new report for APs to monitor the number of consents determined.

The report provides a summary and list of consent decisions made in any given date range - including the total fee amount based on the Ministerial fee notice.

Fixes

Requests for Further Information (RFI) - Email Notifications

Applicant responses to a variation RFI will now send an email notification to the organisation email and the allocated assessor.

Building notifications for designated building product & checklist

The signatory for Part A and Part B of the Statement of Compliance is now hidden when submitting the following notifications:

  • Commencement of installation of designated building product.
  • Commencement of provision of completed supervisor’s checklist related to the installation of the designated building product.

Upload Statement of Compliance form

On upload of the Statement of Compliance form, the document number is now generated and shown in the document file name.

PlanSA portal

Statement of Compliance template

Effective from 5 April 2024 is version (5) of the Statement of Compliance (SoC) template, with the following PlanSA pages have been updated accordingly:

The new Statement of Compliance form must be used from 5 April 2024 in accordance with regulation 104(3) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017 (the Regulations). Any Statement of Compliance forms uploaded into the DAP after this date, using the previous version (version 4) are not compliant and will not be accepted.

Currently, the latest version (version 5) of the Statement of Compliance is not yet available for generation from the DAP but will be made available shortly. Until then, the new version is available from the resources library.

We will keep you posted when the new form is available for generation through the DAP.

DAP

Features

Operative end date and extension of time form

Amendments to regulation 67 clarify that the operative period of any consent aligns with the operative period of the Development Approval.

Where a Development Approval is granted, the operative period of related consents will be updated to align with the operative date of the Development Approval. The date will be reflected in the ‘operative period end date’ history table of the Consent Decision tab and recorded in the event audit history of the application.

Where an application has Development Approval and an extension is required, the extension of time request form will only show the Development Approval.

An extension of time can still be applied for on a consent where development approval has not been granted.

Notification period for out of council areas

The notification period for completion notifications has been updated to five business days for out of council areas (per regulation amendments to the prescribed period in regulation 96).

Fixes

Extension of time update

The extension of time decision maker column in the operative history table has been updated to reflect the relevant authority who granted/refused the extension of time request.

PlanSA portal

Features

Approval Wizard – Amendments to Dam Selection

When searching for ‘Dam’ within the Approval Wizard on the PlanSA website, and in circumstances where the results identify that you may not need approval, the following additional note has been added:

Note: The Landscape South Australia Act 2019 requires authorisation for dam construction under 5 ML and/or wall height less than 3 m. Please contact your local Landscape Board to confirm permit requirements.

DAP

Features

Review variation request – mark as “assessment not required”

An additional option “assessment not required” is now available when responding to a variation request on a consent.

Selecting “assessment not required” will progress the variation request to the next Consent or Approval authority for consideration. The outcome “assessment not required” will not be displayed on the Decision Notification Form.

Latest version

Fixes

Mandatory indemnity insurance upload before or at the submission of the commencement of building work notification.

When the answer to the question “Has the Applicant Entered into a Building Work Contract Agreement” is “Yes”, the system now requires that building indemnity insurance documentation is supplied before or at the submission of the commencement of building work notification. Where there is an exemption, an exemption notice is required to be uploaded to be able to submit the commencement of building work notification if not already provided.

PowerBI

Features

Building Inspections Report

A new version of the PowerBI Building Inspection Report includes cosmetic changes to simplify the presentation and navigation within the report, and the following enhancements:

  • Builders Contact Page – a new page containing information related to builder contacts which can be filtered by Builder Name, license number, contact type etc.
  • Documents Report Page – a new page has been created for Form 2 documents that have been uploaded.
  • Further Analysis – within the Practice Direction page, additional tiles and underlying data filters have been included to identify completed building works inspected and completed building works not inspected, on or after the completed date.
  • Statement of Compliance Page – a description has been added to the building work column describing the building work.
  • Certificate of Occupancy – the CoO report page has been amended to exclude Class 1A development where a CoO is not required.
  • Certificate of Occupancy – the CoO report page has been enhanced to include the following information about the CoO process and whether all pre-requisites have been met:
    • Statement of Compliance uploaded (yes or no)
    • Form 2 document uploaded (yes or no)
    • all non-conformances have been rectified (true or false)
    • Certificate of Occupancy clock expiry date.

DAP

Features

Save and default frequently used contact details

Volume applicants and Accredited Professionals organisation administrators can now set up standard contacts for the following: applicant, primary, invoice, builder, registered building work supervisor and private certifier. Standard contacts can be set to appear as application defaults or selected throughout the application process.

Latest version

Online submission form (Crown Development)

The online submission form for Crown development has been updated to include an additional question. The question relates to whether the representor would like to present their submission in person at a hearing.

Development Application Processing (DAP) system Building Notifications Report

The DAP Building Notifications Report now shows rectification notifications and includes the ability to filter by Rectification Required and Rectification Submitted.

Application form updates

When submitting an application for accreditation, a new question has been added to ask the applicant if they want their contact information (email/phone number) to be published in the Accredited Professional Register.

Code Rules Checklist Tool - Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS)

The Code Rules Checklist tool can now be used for Planning Consent applications that have a status of "in verification" or "awaiting verification" to identify refined elements of an application that has a Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS) pathway in the Planning and Design Code (the Code).

The checklist can be downloaded, completed, and saved back to the document store as evidence that elements within an application are able/unable to be assessed as a DTS form of development.

Latest Version

Fixes

Updates to Building Notifications and Inspections Email Recipients

An Accredited Professional who issued the building rules consent, now only receives an email notification on submission of the completion of building work notification – PDI (Gen) Regs. 104(3)(b).

An Accredited Professional who is nominated to issue the Certificate of Occupancy, now receives an email notification when:

  • an inspection is required for the completed building/building work – PDI (Gen) Regs. 103E (2)(a)
  • unsatisfactory inspection of the completed building/building work – PDI (Gen) Regs. 103E (2)(b)(ii)(A)
  • submission of the rectification notification of the completed building/building work
  • an inspection is required for the rectification of the completed building/building work – PDI (Gen) Regs. 103E (2)(b)(ii)(B).

PlanSA portal

Fixes

Planning and Design Code Extract – Formatting

Updates have been made to the formatting of the PDF Planning and Design Code Extracts to improve:

  • consistency of font sizing
  • table formatting and readability.

Hard Copy Development Application Form – New Version

An amended version of the hard copy development application form has been published on the PlanSA website. The fields in the revised form now align with the mandatory submission fields in the PlanSA Development Application Processing (DAP) system.

DAP

Features

New Banking Provider –  ANZ

The South Australian Government has recently entered into an agreement with a new banking provider and is in the process of transitioning to ANZ. Credit card payments made via the Development Application Processing (DAP) system and the PlanSA planning portal will no longer be processed via BPOINT, and will automatically be made to the new bank account via the ANZ payment gateway.

Latest version

Building Statistics –  ABS Building component hierarchy changes

The building statistics page has been modified to properly group the building component hierarchical structure by splitting the questions based on the four divisions, eighteen classes and thirty-three subclasses in accordance with the ABS Functional Classification of Buildings.

www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/functional-classification-buildings/latest-release.

Latest version

Apply for a Certificate of Occupancy

The existing button has been renamed and now reads ‘Apply for Certificate of Occupancy’; the application page heading has also been updated to match.

Additional information has been added to the email titled 'Confirmation. Received Certificate of Occupancy application' to include the building consent stage, name of the building/building work, the authority issuing the CoO and contact who signed Part B of the Statement of Compliance.

Latest version

Land Division Certificate Status – Applicant's View

The applicant's view of the progress for issuing the Land Division Certificate now aligns with the actual status.

Fixes

Building Indemnity Insurance

On updating missing building indemnity insurance information (names of person(s) insured, limitations or builder), the uploaded 'building indemnity insurance' document now remains and is no longer removed from the document store.

The 'Upload building indemnity insurance documents' section is now hidden when changing response to the question 'Has the applicant entered into a domestic building works contract' to 'not applicable' or 'owner builder'.

Building Notifications – Building indemnity insurance details

When submitting the Commencement of Building Work Notification from the Notification & Inspections tab, all insurance details now show in the insurance section of the selected building notification.

Generation of Form 2 Document

The Form 2 Document now generates at decision, and the error that was causing the document not to generate in some scenarios has been resolved.

Accessing Document Store – Error message

An error message has been resolved which was occurring in the application document store, for applications which had been reassigned to another Relevant Authority and a file no longer exists.

Request for Further Information (RFI) – Recall Request

A relevant authority user can now recall a previous Request for Further Information (RFI) which they have issued within an application. Upon actioning the recall, the assessment clock will resume from the day the initial request was made and remove any "pause" days associated with the request.

Latest version

Development Application – Review Additional Document Task

Where an applicant uploads additional documentation on the consent or development approval, the Relevant Authority cannot progress to issue a decision without first evaluating and confirming whether these documents are accepted or rejected.

Latest version

Variation Requests

An applicant can now submit a variation request in circumstances where the operative date of the Development Approval has exceeded 2 years, and where a building notification has been received to indicate that the building work has been substantially commenced.

PlanSA Portal

Features

Public Development Application Register

Granted consents no longer appear as 'under assessment' if the Consent has been marked inconsistent by the relevant authority at development approval.

Public Development Application Register - Location Details

When a land division occurs on a property, the original allotment is considered the 'parent' location, and the newly created allotments are often referred to as the 'child' locations. The public development application register has been updated to display both the parent location, and any child location details where applicable.