Code Assessable Development in Queensland Explained
Code assessable development is a type of development application in Queensland where council judges your proposal only against a defined set of planning codes, and where there is no public notification. If your dual occupancy, townhouse project, subdivision or office fit-out is code assessable, the job is to show, code by code, that the design meets the benchmarks. A well-prepared application can move through council without objectors, but nothing about it is automatic, and approval is never guaranteed. At Urbanza Town Planners we work on these applications across Brisbane and South East Queensland, from the first site check through to lodgement.
TL;DR
Code assessable means council assesses your application against the codes the planning scheme names for that development, not against the whole scheme.
Brisbane City Council says code assessable proposals are typically anticipated in the locality and do not require public notification.
Your level of assessment comes from Part 5 of your local planning scheme: it depends on the type of development, the zone, and any overlays or neighbourhood plans.
Budget for more than the council fee: reports, consultants, possible information requests and infrastructure charges all sit on top.
A planner who reads the scheme before you design saves the most time, because the codes shape the plans.
Table of Contents
What code assessable actually means
Queensland sorts development into categories, and the category decides how much scrutiny your project gets. The three you will meet most are accepted, code assessable and impact assessable.
Accepted development needs no development application at all, provided it meets the stated requirements. (Building approval may still be needed, which is a separate process.)
Code assessable development needs a development application and an approval before you can start. Council assesses it against the assessment benchmarks set out in the planning scheme, mainly its codes. The Toowoomba Regional Council describes these benchmarks as mainly planning scheme codes, supplemented by matters in the Planning Regulation 2017.
Impact assessable development also needs an application, but council considers a wider range of matters, and the application is publicly notified so neighbours can make submissions. Brisbane City Council explains that impact assessment looks at all identified codes and other relevant parts of City Plan, while code assessment is limited to the identified benchmark codes.
In plain terms: the planning scheme has already decided, in advance, that this kind of development is broadly appropriate in this location. Your job is to show your particular design delivers the outcomes the codes ask for.
How accepted development can become code assessable
The boundary is not fixed. Under the Part 5 rules in planning schemes, an accepted proposal that fails one or more of the nominated acceptable outcomes generally becomes code assessable, unless the scheme says otherwise. That matters for owners who assume a small project needs no application. A building that nearly meets the setback or site cover requirements may have just stepped into the code assessable category.
How to find out if your project is code assessable
The answer sits in your local council’s planning scheme, in the tables of assessment (Part 5). The process is the same everywhere in Queensland, though the detail differs between councils.
Identify the development component. Brisbane’s City Council guidance lists four: material change of use (a new or changed use of land, such as dual occupancy, townhouses or a childcare centre), reconfiguring a lot (subdividing or changing boundaries), operational work, and building work.
Find your zone and any zone precinct. The zone is the first thing the table reads.
Check overlays and neighbourhood plans. These are extra layers covering things like flooding, character, bushfire or local area plans. In Brisbane, the highest applicable category prevails, so one overlay can lift a project from code to impact assessment.
Read the assessment benchmarks column. It names the codes that apply. In Brisbane it can identify use codes, prescribed secondary codes, overlay codes and neighbourhood plan codes.
Check for variations. Planning scheme tables commonly note where the category changes, for example when a size threshold is exceeded, as the Part 5 guidance explains.
This is where most homeowners and small investors get stuck. The tables are written for planners, a single lot can be caught by several overlays, and reading one row wrongly changes the whole application strategy. Our guide to Brisbane City Plan 2014 shows how zones, overlays and codes fit together if you want to read your own scheme first.
What council actually assesses
A code is a set of requirements with a purpose, overall outcomes, and then either performance outcomes or acceptable outcomes. The Part 5 rules say an application that meets the purpose and overall outcomes of the code complies with that code. Acceptable outcomes are a straightforward way to show compliance. Where your design departs from them, you can still comply by demonstrating the performance outcome is met another way.
That flexibility is the real skill in code assessment. A design that meets every acceptable outcome is simple to support. A design that departs from one, say a reduced side setback on a narrow lot, needs a written response that explains why the outcome is still achieved. A weak response invites an information request or a refusal.
Code assessment is also bounded. Council cannot go looking for new grounds outside the nominated benchmarks, which is what makes the category more predictable than impact assessment. The Queensland Planning Act 2016 and its regulation set the framework, and the Department records amendments to the regulation each year, including changes in 2025 effective on 3 February, 1 July, 18 July and 28 November. Which of those touch your project depends on its type, so check the current regulation or ask a planner.
What the code assessable process looks like
The Queensland Development Assessment Rules set the steps. Ipswich City Council notes there are five possible formal parts: application, referral, information request, public notification and decision. Not every application goes through every part. A code assessable application has no public notification part.
Here is how it typically runs.
1. Site investigation and category check
Before any drawings, confirm the zone, overlays, lot size, easements, access and servicing. This is where we start with clients at Urbanza: our approach runs from initial site investigations through to lodgement, tailored to the local council’s requirements and the project.
2. Design against the codes
The architect or designer draws to the benchmarks. Briefing them with the relevant codes at the start avoids redesign later.
3. Prepare the application
Brisbane lists the application form, owner’s consent, proposal plans, a planning assessment and specialist investigation reports as possible attachments, and recommends engaging architects, town planners and surveyors for the necessary documents. The planning report, which responds to each code, is the document that carries a code assessable application.
4. Lodge and be properly made
A Queensland application must be properly made before the clock starts. Missing owner’s consent or a missing form can stall it at the outset.
5. Referral, if needed
Some applications go to a state agency or other referral body, depending on the site. A road corridor or a flood-prone lot are typical triggers.
6. Information request
This is a formal opportunity for the assessment manager or a referral agency to ask for more information. The Queensland Law Handbook explains that it affects the assessment sequence. A tight, complete application reduces the chance of one, and a clear response keeps the application moving when one arrives.
7. Decision
Version 1.3 of the Development Assessment Rules set a general decision period of 35 days after the preceding parts end, with the decision notice generally issued within 5 days of the decision. Rules are updated from time to time, so confirm the version in force when you lodge. The Australian Business Licence and Information Service notes the assessment manager may approve all or part of an application, approve it with conditions, or refuse it.
For a longer walk-through, see our step-by-step guide to the development application process in Queensland.
Public notification and appeal rights
Neighbours cannot lodge formal submissions on a code assessable application. Ipswich City Council states there is no formal public notification process or associated third-party appeal rights, although council may still consider a submission it receives.
For you, the applicant, the right of appeal remains. The Queensland Law Handbook states that an applicant dissatisfied with a decision may appeal to the Planning and Environment Court, while submitters who made a properly made submission may appeal decisions involving impact assessment. Appeals involve legal costs and strict time limits, so speak to a planning lawyer about any specific decision. If your project is impact assessable instead, our guide to community impact assessment in Queensland covers the added layer.
How common projects are usually assessed
The table below gives a general guide for the projects our readers ask about most. The category for your lot always depends on your own scheme, zone and overlays.
Project | Application type | What to know |
Dual occupancy or duplex | Material change of use | Logan Council treats dual occupancy, including duplexes, as a material change of use application, with a fee and residential checklists. |
Townhouses and apartments | Material change of use | Multiple dwellings are also material change of use applications in Logan, and the number of units drives both the fee and the infrastructure charge. |
Subdivision (land split) | Reconfiguring a lot | Logan Council states reconfiguring a lot is generally code assessable unless specified impact criteria apply. |
Office | Material change of use | Category depends on the zone. Fees and infrastructure charges scale with floor area. |
Granny flat | Depends on the scheme | Whether it needs an application depends on your zone, lot and design, and a failed acceptable outcome can move it into code assessment. |
For subdivisions, Logan lists benchmarks that can include filling and excavation, infrastructure, landscape, reconfiguring a lot, servicing, access and parking, and local plan codes. That list is a good picture of what a subdivision report has to address: stormwater, road access, services and lot shape, not just the lot sizes.
If you are weighing a land split or a townhouse development, the lot size, frontage and slope will determine how much of that list is a problem for you. We work on subdivisions, dual occupancy, townhouses, apartments, offices and warehouses across the region.
What a code assessable application costs
Budget in three layers.
1. Council application fee. This varies by council and by development type and scale. As one example, the Sunshine Coast’s 2025/26 fee register lists $2,400 for building work for a dual occupancy not associated with a material change of use, $4,820 base plus $690 per unit for a multiple dwelling, and $4,820 base plus $15 per square metre for an office use, capped at 3,000 square metres. The same register states its listed fees are for code assessment, and an impact assessable fee is 1.5 times the code assessable fee. Fees are reset each financial year, so read your own council’s current schedule.
2. Preparation costs. Ipswich City Council advises applicants to allow for supporting information and consultants’ fees, plus any independent specialist-study review council requires. In practice that means a planner, a designer or architect, a surveyor and, depending on the site, traffic, stormwater or ecology reports.
3. Infrastructure charges. These are separate from the application fee and are often the largest figure on a townhouse or office project. Schedule 16 of the Planning Regulation 2017, in force from 1 July 2025, prescribes $26,193.40 per dwelling with two or fewer bedrooms and $36,670.70 per dwelling with three or more bedrooms for listed residential uses, and $183.35 per square metre of gross floor area plus $13.10 per square metre of impervious area for commercial office uses. Councils may adopt charges at or below those amounts, and the figures are indexed, so treat them as a guide to scale.
A worked example shows why unit count matters. Using the Sunshine Coast application fee alone, a six-unit multiple dwelling is $4,820 plus six times $690, which is $8,960. The infrastructure charge on the same six dwellings, at the Schedule 16 amounts, runs to six figures before any local adoption or credits are applied. The application fee is the small number. Our guide to development application costs in Queensland breaks the layers down further.
Where code assessable applications go wrong
Assuming the category. A lot under an overlay may sit in a higher category than the neighbour’s did two years ago.
Designing first, reading the code second. A plan that fails several acceptable outcomes needs a long justification, and each one is a place for council to push back.
A thin planning report. The report should answer every applicable code, not just the headline one.
Slow responses to information requests. The clock effectively stops while you answer, so delay costs holding time on the land.
Ignoring conditions. An approval with conditions still has to be met before plan sealing, building work or opening.
Most people hear “code assessable” and relax because there are no objectors. We understand the relief, but the real work is in the codes. A development application is won or lost on how well the design and the planning report answer them. At Urbanza we begin with the site and the scheme, before a design is locked in. That is how we try to give clients a practical, commercially focused path: a project that fits the codes as drawn, rather than one that needs rescuing in an information request. We guide clients from initial site investigations through to lodgement, and we tailor the application to the council’s requirements and the project. No planner can promise an approval, and we will not. What we can do is bring technical precision to the application, so the council’s assessment is working from a clear, complete case. Jwal
What we tell clients about code assessment
Getting a code assessable application moving
If you are considering a dual occupancy, townhouses, a land split, an office or a commercial site in Brisbane or South East Queensland, the sensible first step is a category check on your lot, before you pay for plans. Urbanza Town Planners manages development applications across residential, commercial and special projects, and our team can also help with town planning in the Caboolture area.
Tell us the address and what you want to build, and we will work out the level of assessment and what the application needs to show.
FAQ
What does code assessable mean?
It means your development needs council approval, and council assesses it only against the benchmarks the planning scheme nominates, mostly its codes. There is no public notification for a code assessable application.
What is the difference between code and impact assessable development?
Code assessment is limited to the identified benchmark codes. Impact assessment considers all identified codes and other relevant parts of the planning scheme, and the application is publicly notified so neighbours can make submissions.
Can a code assessable application be refused?
Yes. The assessment manager may approve all or part of an application, approve it with conditions, or refuse it. A well-prepared report that addresses each code gives the application the best footing, but no outcome is guaranteed. An applicant who disagrees with a decision may appeal to the Planning and Environment Court.
How long does a code assessable application take?
The Development Assessment Rules, in Version 1.3, set a general decision period of 35 days after the earlier parts of the process end. Referrals and information requests add time, so the total depends on your site and how complete your application is.
Where do I find my property’s level of assessment?
Look at Part 5 of your local council’s planning scheme. Match your development type to your zone, then check overlays and neighbourhood plans for anything that changes the category.
Sources
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