Certain types of planning applications are determined by the Planning Decisions Committee. Learn about the meeting – and how you can prepare.

Good to know:

• The Planning Decisions Committee (PDC) deals with certain types of applications, per the Instrument of Delegation.
• PDC meeting allows the committee to hear from all parties in attendance and balance their concerns and issues against the officer recommendation in the officer report.
• The committee meets once a month at 6.30pm. See our latest schedule.
• Anyone can attend.
• Anyone who wants to speak at the meeting needs to register beforehand. To register, find the meeting in the list here and follow the prompts to register. Once you have registered you will be sent further information. You will have three minutes to speak.

What happens at the meeting?

Our planning officers will outline the officer report and officer’s recommendation, the permit applicant will put forward the planning merits of the application, and the objectors will outline their concerns and how the proposed development will impact them. The committee hears from all parties in attendance before they make their resolution.

A written recommendation in the form of an officer report is put forward to the committee by our planning officers. The officer report is publicly available (on our website) usually on the Wednesday prior to a PDC meeting (which is held on a Tuesday evening).

The report provides:

• a written overview of the proposed development
• an assessment of the proposed development against all relevant policy in the Yarra Planning Scheme
• issues or recommendations put forward by referrals
• the issues and concerns raised in the objections
• a recommendation to the committee.

After the meeting

We will publish the meeting minutes on Council's website here.

We send a letter explaining our decision to the applicant and all objectors – even those who did not attend the meeting. The letter has information on how to appeal our decision.