The pre-application process is a voluntary process which is available to all types of major amendments but is used mostly by proponents of proponent-initiated major amendments.

In preparing initial advice back to the proponent, the Authority may seek comments from relevant government agencies.

The proponent may then use this information to prepare their supporting report to accompany their application for a major amendment.

The main benefits of the pre-application guidance process are:

  • highlighting opportunities and constraints of a proposal early, before the proponent invests more time and money
  • the ability to tailor the supporting report following early comments from relevant entities
  • increased likelihood of the application being supporting by the Authority if issues are addressed early in the process.

To initiate the pre-application process a proponent should contact terrplan@act.gov.au. A summary of the proposal should be provided, including the:

  • location of the proposal
  • scale and nature of the proposal
  • initial ideas regarding changes to the Territory Plan.

Request for a proponent-initiated amendment to rezone residential land

A common request for proponent-initiated major amendment to the Territory Plan is to rezone an individual block of residential land. For example, to rezone a block of residential land from RZ1 Suburban Zone to RZ2 Suburban Core Zone.

In considering whether to accept an application for a proponent-led amendment to rezone land under the Planning Act 2023, the Territory Planning Authority must have regard to “anything else the authority considers relevant to the amendment”. This includes further relevant policy work required to strategically plan for land across the city, including looking at land for housing, employment and other uses more broadly, rather than making small changes to rezone individual parcels of land.

While an application to rezone an individual parcel of land could be accepted by the authority, it would not be approved, as it does not meet the requirements of the Act. The application would be refused on the grounds that broader policy work is required to be done to inform such zoning changes. The RZ1 and RZ2 zones, are more appropriately being considered at the strategic level as part of policy work. In this regard, ACT Government is currently progressing a range of strategic planning projects across the city, consistent with the district strategies and the ACT Planning Strategy.