If you’re starting a project in NSW right now and you’re not making the hard decisions early, you’re setting yourself up for unnecessary cost and delay.

If you’re starting a project in NSW right now and you’re not making the hard decisions early, you’re setting yourself up for unnecessary cost and delay.

That applies whether it’s a family renovation or a commercial fit-out.

I see this every week. Projects that slow down at the start to properly understand the site, the controls and the risks tend to move through approvals with far less friction. Projects that rush into design without doing the groundwork usually pay for it later.

And they pay more than they expected.

The planning system has changed

Over the last few years, the NSW planning system has become far more transparent and performance-driven. Councils are publicly measured on assessment timeframes. Determination data is published. Benchmarks are visible.

That changes behaviour.

When councils are under pressure to meet performance targets, applications that arrive incomplete or poorly resolved do not get special treatment. They get requests for information. They get delayed. Sometimes they get pushed aside.

The expectation now is simple. Come prepared.

What happens when you don’t

One of the clearest signs that early research was missing is the number of modification applications being lodged.

Most 4.55 modifications are not about ambition. They’re about something that should have been addressed earlier. A decision not considered in the early design process. A control misunderstood. A consultant engaged too late. A constraint identified after design momentum had already built.

The pattern is predictable.

Research gets rushed.

Design progresses anyway.

Issues surface at lodgment or during assessment.

Redesign follows.

More consultants are engaged.

Time stretches.

Costs rise.

Once a project enters a modification pathway, it rarely regains its original momentum. What could have been resolved in a structured pre-design phase becomes a long, expensive clean-up exercise.

Complying development only works if you do

The complying development pathway is excellent when the proposal genuinely complies.

It is not a shortcut around unresolved planning questions.

If the site has constraints that weren’t properly investigated, or if the design sits too close to the edge of compliance, the CDC pathway won’t save you. It will send you back to a DA, often after time and fees have already been spent.

Speed is available in this system. But only when the groundwork has been done properly.

Preparation is the price of certainty.

Research is not a delay, it’s protection.

Clients sometimes see upfront research as an added cost. It isn’t. It’s cost control.

Real research means understanding zoning, overlays, local provisions, referral triggers and environmental constraints. It means knowing whether you’ll need traffic input, heritage advice, acoustic reporting or civil coordination before the design locks in.

When this work is deferred, it doesn’t disappear. It comes back later as redesign fees, consultant variations, extended holding costs and avoidable modification applications.

You don’t save money by skipping research.

You defer the cost.

And it usually grows.

The architect’s role is changing

Architects are no longer just engaged to design and document. Increasingly, we’re brought in to guide decisions before the design even starts. Some would say ‘like the good old days’.

That’s not about being conservative. It’s about being commercially responsible.

Good projects share one thing in common. The key decisions were made early. The ambition was aligned with the planning reality. The risks were identified before money was committed too far down the track.

That is not caution. It is leadership.

The bottom line

The days of “we’ll sort that out at DA stage” are over.

The planning system is measured. Performance is public. Expectations are higher.

Early research is not an administrative task. It is the first strategic decision in the project.

Slow down at the start.

Make the right calls early.

Protect the rest of the journey.

Ignore that, and the project will teach the lesson the expensive way.

Ruth Newmann

With over 20 year’s architectural experience, she is the eponymous principal of Ruth Newman Architect. For Ruth, architecture is fulfilling due to its diversity. “Being able to create a space that meets our clients’ requirements – such as designing a home that works today for a couple without children, but will also accommodate a family in the future – is a privilege.”

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