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.

2025

DAP

Features

DAP internal referrals – ability to add due date and a template

This enhancement introduces the ability for the Relevant Authority to specify a due date when distributing an internal referral. The due date defines the expected timeframe for providing referral feedback.

A standard ‘referral response template’ can now be attached to internal referrals, assisting in ensuring response consistency. The respondent can download the template when they view internal referral details.

Latest version

Fixes

Housing numbers fix – SAHT entered housing numbers

An application containing 'housing numbers' for the new housing refined element 'Dwelling or residential flat building undertaken by South Australian Housing Trust' can now be submitted with updated values being saved during planning consent verification, assessment (Planning Info tab) and development approval (Statistics tab).

Housing numbers fix – values refresh when editing element information.

Saved changed are now reflected immediately in the Planning Information – ‘Elements details’ section, for elements and/or element information edited from the Application Summary tab options 'Elements selected' and 'Planning Information'.

The values entered for ‘No. of dwellings for affordable housing’ are now cleared when the proposed development does not include affordable housing.

PowerBI

Features

PowerBI Building Inspections report

The new Building Inspections report is now available. The report contains the updated Practice Direction page to comply with Practice Directions 8 and 9 that came into effect as of 1 July 2025. The report is accessible under the Notifications & Inspections section in PowerBI.

DAP

Features

Development Application Processing (DAP) system – file upload size increase

In response to the Expert Panel Report Recommendation 69, which highlighted insufficient file upload capacity within the DAP system, the maximum file upload size has been increased to 230 MB for plans and reports.

Farm building and farm sheds – Practice Direction 9

The updated Practice Directions 9 – Council Inspections, effective from 1 July 2025,  separates farm buildings and farm sheds for mandatory inspections.

To align with the mandatory inspection requirements set out in Practice Direction 9 the following enhancements are now in place:

  • a new prompt is shown when building work contains a Class 7b or Class 8 building to indicate whether the building is located on land primarily used for agriculture
  • separation of farm buildings and farm sheds for users to select the type of building for inspection purposes and to enter the total floor area
  • automatic splitting of confirmed farm building or farm shed into own building work when classed with another.

Latest version

Development Application Processing (DAP) – housing numbers

Applicants proposing new housing are now required to include information on the type and number of proposed dwellings in the DAP system. This includes the number of dwellings for affordable housing and the number of rooms for student accommodation and supported accommodation. Relevant authorities for planning consent will be required to confirm the number of new houses, the number of residential buildings and the number of rooms proposed for student accommodation and supported accommodation.

Further information can be found in Submit an application | PlanSA.

External referral bodies can now amend their responses directly within the system before consent is granted. This update eliminates the need for email requests and manual assessments by DIT officers, streamlining the process and reducing delays.

The enhancement aims to:

  • increase efficiency: streamlines the amendment process, reducing the time required to correct erroneous information
  • reduce workload: decreases the number of manual amendment requests handled by the Technical Support team.
  • improve accuracy: allows for quicker and more accurate updates to referral responses.

Latest version

Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) application issuing authority

A relevant authority submitting a CoO application on behalf of the applicant is now able to change the issuing authority (as applicable).

Latest version

Submission form new page – More information for consent approvals

The development application submission form has a new Consents page, 'More information for consent approvals', consolidating consent required information. It includes Preliminary Agreement, Public Notification Sign on Land, Construction Industry Training Fund (CITF) and Builder or Contractor Details.

Latest version

PowerBI

Features

PowerBI Building Inspections report

On 1 July 2025, PlanSA ceased data refreshes for the existing Practice Direction page in the Building Inspections report. This version of the report will be marked as 'refresh disabled' and will remain accessible for previous financial years, enabling data retrieval at any time according to the rules of the previous Practice Directions.

The new Building Inspections report is available from 9 July 2025. The report contains the updated Practice Direction page to comply with Practice Directions that came into effect as of 1 July 2025. The report will be accessible under the Notifications & Inspections section in PowerBI.

DAP

Features

Public notification communication

Emails associated with public notification have been updated replacing references from ‘public consultation’ to ‘public notification’.

DAP – CITF levy

The total development cost includes GST where the CITF levy does not. CITF levy requirements will now apply where the total development cost is equal to or greater than $110,001.

Fees and charges 2025-2026 financial year

New fees and charges take effect on 1 July 2025 as published on 15 May 2025 in the Government Gazette.

Crown land division applications

Applications for Crown development involving land division consent for leases no longer require information in fields for:

  • the number of existing allotments; and
  • proposed allotments.

Update to energy efficiency and liveable housing concession reason

Updates to Ministerial Building Standard (MBS) 007 (Amendment 4) – March 2025 include:

  • the concession reason 'Manufactured off-site – 60 m2 or less' has been updated from 60 m2 to 70 m2
  • if the old concession reason was selected the ‘Select concession reason’ field will show both old and new concession reasons.

Latest version

Updates to mandatory building notifications

The mandatory commencement and completion building notifications can determine requirements for the Statement of Compliance (SoC) and enable applicants to apply for a Certificate of Occupancy (where required). Deleting the mandatory completion notification and replacing it with an alternative notification means that applicants cannot apply for a Certificate of Occupancy. Therefore the following updates have been made:

  • the ability to delete mandatory commencement and completion building notifications has been removed to ensure there are no system restrictions on applying for a Certificate of Occupancy
  • this delete functionality is retained where development approvals are staged or there are multiple building works (unless a Certificate of Occupancy is required for the specific building work).

Latest version

Documentation for Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) applications

The CoO application now shows the following documents to allow applicants to cross reference documents already uploaded against the required Statement of Compliance documents specified in the Decision Notification Form (DNF):

  • 'occupancy documentation' already uploaded (on building notification submissions)
  • required 'Statement of Compliance additional certificates, reports or other documents'.

Latest version

Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) - fee payment on application submission

Where council has been nominated as the entity responsible for issuing the CoO, the fee payment is now required when submitting the application, instead of at the completion of the validation process.

Latest version

Application Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) tab

The development application CoO tab has been updated to show more information including:

  • ‘Address on CoO’ shows the building address of the CoO
  • additional address information shows a dash if no information is provided
  • ‘Building Class’ shows the building classes of the selected building/building work building classes
  • ‘Submitted by’ shows the name and organisation of the individual who submitted the application.

Building works including swimming pool and/or safety features

Practice Direction 8 has been updated and was published on 19 June 2025.

Part 2, section 2 of the Practice Direction has been updated to include a mandatory inspection for ‘the installation of a temporary safety barrier for a swimming pool containing a water depth greater than 300 mm’ and the removal of paragraph 2.

In preparation for the introduction of the updated practice direction:

  • swimming pool building notifications have been standardised following input from some councils
  • a separate ‘building work’ for swimming pools and/or safety features will be automatically created where the building consent contains a class 10B building work and building consent authorities have answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Does this building work include a swimming pool and/or swimming pool safety features?’.

The standardised notifications are:

Swimming pool and/or safety features

  • Commencement of building work for swimming pool (mandatory with prompt for Statement of Compliance (SoC)
  • Completion of installation of a temporary safety barrier for a swimming pool containing a water depth greater than 300 mm
  • Completion of building work for swimming pool (mandatory with SoC prompt)
  • Completion of building work swimming pool safety features (mandatory).

Swimming pool safety features

  • Commencement of building work for swimming pool safety features (mandatory)
  • Completion of building work for swimming pool safety features (mandatory).

Latest version

Review Response to Discontinue Application – distribution date enhancements

A new ‘Distribution Date’ field has been added to the Review Response to Discontinue Application screen. This date is now mapped to the Application Discontinued Letter when uploaded, improving documentation accuracy.

When the RA selects ‘No’ to discontinue the application, a new Application Discontinue Process Declined Letter template becomes available. A mandatory comment is also required in this case, and both the comment and distribution date are reflected in the uploaded letter.

The Documents tab now displays the selected distribution date for both letter types, enhancing traceability and compliance.

Latest version

Rearrangement of consent order

Consents can now be rearranged if a subsequent consent was submitted after the initial application submission date, provided that the consents are either in the ‘Awaiting Precursor Consent’ or ‘Verification’ statuses.

A guide on how to rearrange consents can be found in the Application and Consents Details page of the PlanSA website.

Latest version

Fixes

Update to DAP Report – Building and Rectification Notification Report

The DAP Report – Building and Rectification Notification Report can now filter by Class 10 building/building works.

Predefined building notifications – delete restrictions

Predefined building notifications added either individually or by group can only be deleted by the relevant authority (council and/or RAP) who issued the building consent or development approval.

Latest version

Updates to development approval variation request

The relevant authority performing a development approval variation decision is now able to view the 'Required Notifications' and edit, as required.

Latest version

Certificate of Occupancy – adding licensed building work contractor for each Statement of Compliance

During Certificate of Occupancy validation, the ability to add and allocate a different 'licensed building work contractor' for each Statement of Compliance is now available.

DAP

Features

Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) request for documentation improvements

To improve the communication to applicants the following improvements have been made:

  • Request for Documentation now includes both development location and street address (linked child location)
  • Email request header now includes the Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) ID number, Building/Building Work and the Building Address (either development location or linked child location)
  • Additional and new document types for category ‘Occupancy Documents’ include:
    • Engineering Inspection Certificate/Report
    • Engineering Installation Certificate/Report
    • Fire Engineering Report – Final
    • Performance Based Design Report – Final
    • Schedule 2 - Site Contamination Form
    • Schedule 2 - Statement of Site Suitability
    • Statutory Declaration – Smoke Alarms/Bushfire Protection and Supervisor Checklist.
  • For specific document types the 'Type Description' field is shown to allow users to provide details of which part of the building/building work the document relates.

CoO refusal decision improvements

On refusal of a CoO, a new letter template 'Refusal of Certificate of Occupancy' is available for download.

This download is then attached to a new email 'Refused Certificate of Occupancy' and delivered to the primary applicants, primary contact, person who submitted the CoO application, landowner(s), building owner and the location council.

Updated CoO template

The CoO template has been updated with the following changes:

  • Includes the ability to display both the 'Location of Development' (address shown on the decision notification form) and, where applicable, the 'Address or location of building' that can be selected when an address has been created through land division.
  • The section on applicable conditions and/or limitations has been updated to remove the prescribed timeframe of '6 months' to allow the entity responsible for issuing the CoO to determine an appropriate timeframe relevant to the condition being applied.

The statement now reads: ‘In relation to a class 1a building, the following items listed in Part A clause 1 of the Statement/s of Compliance that have not been satisfied must be completed within the specified time from the date this Certificate of Occupancy is signed.’

Apply for CoO – address of building improvements

The ‘Apply for Certificate of Occupancy’ page now shows both development location and newly created address, including additional address information as entered during submission and the title and plan parcel references.

Latest version

DAP

Features

Inspection Outcome Editing Enhancement

This enhancement allows the Location Council or SPC users (in the case of land outside council areas) to edit an inspection outcome in the event of an erroneous submission.

Fixes

Relevant authority name standardisation in system generated documentation

The relevant authority's name is now standardised in the 'Development application summary - Assessment Status' table and across system generated documentation. This includes Snapshots (Submission and Referral), Verification Outcome Letter, Decision Notification Form (DNF) and Section 7 Data service.

Building Indemnity Insurance (BII) and Data extract for Section 7.

Building Indemnity Insurance (BII) details have been reviewed and are only included in the Section 7 data extract documents after the first commencement notification for the building work is submitted or if notifications aren’t required, when the development approval is granted.

Note:

  • BII shows as “Still required” if there is a domestic building work contract, but exemption or Building Indemnity Insurance information has not been entered and is required.
  • BIIs shows as “Not Applicable” if the domestic building work contract is stated as Not Applicable for development ≥ $12,000 and the building work is classified as 1A, 1B, 10A, or 10B.

The Decision Notification Form (DNF) has enhanced wording to align with the BII section in Section 7 data extract.

A disclaimer now advises councils to verify document accuracy independently.

Update consent relevant authority reason

When an under-assessment consent is assigned to a new relevant authority, they can now update the relevant authority reason.

PlanSA portal

Features

Code Amendment Register

The public code amendment register has been enhanced to assist in identifying whether a code amendment is relevant for the purposes of completing Form 1.

The Register table now includes a column titled Form 1 which will provide one of the following responses:

  • Yes – the code amendment is released for consultation or consultation is continuing; or consultation has ended but the code amendment has not come into operation (policy live).
  • No – indicates that a code amendment has received initiation approval but has not yet progressed to consultation or that the code amendment has been implemented into the Planning and Design Code (in operation, policy live).

Other enhancements include:

  • A register glossary – providing definitions and further details about the information available in the register.
  • Identification of Local Government Authority (LGA) – the Register table includes a ‘LGA’ column, indicating where the code amendment is located. Where a code amendment is located in ‘multiple’ LGAs, further detail is available within the overview of the code amendment.

DAP

Features

Building indemnity insurance

Removed the requirement to provide a reason why building indemnity insurance had not been provided to the building consent relevant authority (field is now optional).

Also changed the recipients of a system generated email advising that insurance must be provided prior to commencement. This email is now only sent to the applicant as a reminder by PlanSA.

DAP

Features

Compliance with South Australian Cyber Security Framework (SACSF)

Updated authentication settings for Referral Body accounts.

Expert Panel Report Early Recommendation 4 – Online development application improvements for adding development locations and application contacts

In response to the Expert Panel Report Early Recommendation 4, the location and contacts pages have been improved for applicants submitting a new development application.

Location Page

Improvements to the locations page include:

  • Applicants can now add land parcels to an application using its valuation number. The former “Title or Plan Search” option has now been split into two different search tools.
  • A location will be automatically added to an application when searched. Individual parcels can be removed using a delete tool or all parcels can be removed using the reset locations button.
  • The ‘add selected’ button has been removed, and applicants can proceed to the next page with the next button or save a draft application.
  • Applicants can continue to add more locations to an application and can choose any of the location search types to do this (i.e. address, map or another method).
  • The ‘edit’ option is shown when required location information is missing, e.g. location address and/or council.

Edit development location

The location improvements are also available when editing the development location from the Development Application – Summary page.

Contacts Page

Improvements to the contacts page include:

  • Consolidating the contacts pages to a single application contacts page. Default contacts will be returned where they are recorded for the applicant, primary contact and invoice contact.
  • The add contact button will appear on any contacts where there is no default contact and when more than one contact is allowed.
  • Contacts can be added in any order.

Note – Refer to the below guide to create frequently used and default contacts:

Applications saved in draft form will be reopened in the new format.

Updates have been applied to the contact cards visible from the development application summary, consent and development approval summary pages.

Latest version

City of Victor Harbor to Fleurieu Regional Assessment Panel (FRAP)The City of Victor Harbor has been integrated into the FRAP.

PowerBI

Features

Power BI – Section 138 Clearance Requirements report

The information on this page provides councils with an overview of land division development applications, where a land division certificate has been applied for and their prescribed conditions. The table displays records of prescribed conditions for each land division application showing whether these conditions have been satisfied.

DAP

Features

Land Division Certificate Changes

The Land Division Certificate has had the following changes made:

  • when submitting an application, the land to be divided will accept ‘0’ if the application is for a boundary realignment
  • relabelling the proposed allotment field to inform applicants that it excludes roads and reserves
  • relocating the “apply for certificate” button to the application’s land division certificate tab.

City of Victor Harbor to Fleurieu Regional Assessment Panel (FRAP)

The City of Victor Harbor has been integrated into the FRAP.

PlanSA Portal

Features

Applications on Notice – Location details and current policies

Improvements have been made to the application details section, which includes:

  • combining the Address and Land details (title and plan parcel) into a single view
  • providing a link to view the current development policies for each location.

This change will apply for new and existing applications on public notification.

CATS

Features

Code Amendment Tracking System (CATS)

The CATS is an online system where you can submit, manage and track your code amendment.

In CATS you can perform the following tasks:

  • submit a Proposal to Initiate
  • respond to requests for information
  • pay invoices
  • track the code amendment
  • complete and respond to actions (such as the requirement for engagement approval)
  • submit and activate stages as the code amendment progresses (such as submitting for engagement to commence or submitting for determination).

CATS will be used for processing all new and existing code amendments.

Portal

Code Amendment Register (Portal)

The public code amendment register has been enhanced to connect with CATS and reflect the status of code amendments.

  • The website register has improved search functionality by the LGA filter, and a new code amendment ID filter.
  • The code amendment status bar has been enhanced and will show: Adopted (Implementation Pending), Altered and Adopted (Implementation Pending), Code Amendment Progressing, Declined (Determination), Declined (Initiation), Policy Live (dd/mm/yyyy), Withdrawn 

To view code amendments currently on consultation, use the show code amendments on consultation toggle in the search filter.

There are also additional tiles linking to the:

  • Toolkit (Code Amendment Toolkit)
  • Code Amendment Dashboard
  • Link to Browse the Planning and Design Code
Code Amendment Tracking System (CATS) DashboardThe new public facing dashboard provides a clear and accessible overview of all code amendments currently in the system with counts of code amendments at various statuses.

PoweBI

Features

Workload Management Report - Awaiting Payments

A new Awaiting Payments Report has been created in the Workload Management Report to replace an earlier version of the report.

The Awaiting Payment Report provides councils and the State Planning Commission with an overview of development applications awaiting payment. The report returns records of applications with outstanding payments at the consent or application level. Fees for the Certificate of Occupancy charged by an accredited professional are not shown in this report.

DAP

Features

Enhanced Visibility of Building Work ID in PlanSA System

A new enhancement to the PlanSA system designed to improve the building indemnity insurance (BII) application process for builders.

This enhancement provides visibility of the building work ID on the respective DAP screen locations where the building work short name is displayed.

Builders can now easily view the building work ID alongside the building work short name, streamlining the BII application process.

Assessment clock - endorsements

The assessment clock now remains visible in the application assessment status table while consent is awaiting endorsement.

Public notification communication

Emails associated with public notification have been updated to replace references to "public consultation" with "public notification".

Latest version

Tree damaging activity on neighbouring land

Updates to the significant and regulated tree question during submission now include a prompt to indicate separately if any of the tree(s) are on the neighbour’s property.

Certificate of Occupancy - Ability to allocate an assessor

The Certificate of Occupancy (CoO) summary tab now has the ability to assign validation and/or decision to an assessor.

Latest version

Fixes

Discontinue application communication

In the discontinue process, the generated email and letter communication signatory now shows the active consent assessing officer and/or relevant authority and associated contact details.

Extension of Time Notifications

When an extension of time is processed for development approval, the email notification is sent to the Relevant Authority, allocated assessor, and primary contact.

Latest version

PlanSA portal

Features

Code amendment submission form

PlanSA is currently developing a new code amendment dashboard which will allow proponents to lodge and track the progress of code amendments. Changes to the Website Submission Form have been made to support the development of the dashboard.

The changes to the website provide a new user interface to submit a Proposal to Initiate a Code Amendment, including:

  • user validation functionality to verify submission details (to reduce spam and safeguard information)
  • detailed submission questions capturing detailed spatial information, related zoning and anticipated yield
  • connectivity with the Code Amendment Tracking System (CATS) currently under development.

The form to request a change to the code remains unchanged and can be found on the Code Amendment website page.

PowerBI

Fixes

PowerBI - Practice direction dashboard

The Practice Direction 9 table has been updated to include all inspections in the total count (except rectifications). This fixes an error where monthly totals were incorrect. The Building Works Inspected column in the Practice Direction 8 Table has been renamed to Building Work Completion Inspection.

DAP

Features

Custom contact email for building occupation/ completion

The Council/SPC user defined email address for building notifications will appear on the Decision Notification Form's Building Occupation/Completion section.

Rectification decision comment field visibility

The rectification decision comment detail is now visible on the Building Notification screen for the Relevant Authority and Accredited Professional (Building Certifier).

This enhancement improves the efficiency and accuracy of the rectification process by providing critical feedback to authorised personnel while maintaining confidentiality.

Building Notification enhancements

An email notification is sent to the applicant when building consent is granted and building indemnity insurance has not yet been provided. The email advises that indemnity insurance must be provided in DAP prior to the notice of building works commencing.

An applicant is required to enter a reason where they did not enter into a domestic work contract and are not exempt from holding insurance.

Planning consent “on hold” feature

The system now allows a Planning Consent to be placed on hold after the consultation process has closed.

Fixes

Development application – application contacts

Adding or modifying an application contact (i.e. applicant, primary contact, invoice contact, or land owner), changing the contact style (e.g. individual to business), or selecting contact style 'Council' no longer resets the selected contact type.

Development application – document date distributed

For contacts requiring postal correspondence. The entered ‘Date Distributed’ for a selected document is now saved when the document is updated.

Development application council contacts

When 'council' is an application contact (applicant, invoice contact, primary contact, or land owner) the contact's name field now displays the name of the council in the following places:

  • Submit Development Application pages - Applicants, Primary Contact, Invoice Contact and Land Owner
  • Application contacts
  • Current and new Beta dashboards for relevant authorities
  • DALite
  • DAP Reports
  • PlanSA Public Register

Edit consent elements – purpose of the development now available

When editing planning consent elements from the application summary page, the purpose of development checkbox is now available when council is the applicant and/or land owner.

Electronic lodgement fee – council development is not revenue raising

The Electronic Lodgement Fee (ELF) no longer automatically defaults for the second consent when the applicant and/or land owner is council and development is not revenue-raising as determined on assessing the first consent.

Withdraw application – referral body notified

The referral body is now informed when a development application with a state government agency agreement (pre-lodgement agreement) is withdrawn.

DAP

Feature

Construction Industry Training Fund (CITF) threshold change

Effective 1 January 2025 development approvals issues after this date, the CITF levy payable by the project owner is now calculated on the estimated project value of building or construction works greater than $100,000.

Development applications with a building consent under assessment on or after 1 January 2025 the new threshold (works greater than $100,000) applies. To ensure that applicants have easy access to necessary information and maintain compliance with CITF levy requirements, the following enhancements have been made.

  • During application submission the question “Has the CITF Levy been paid? “ shows for development elements that require building consent approval and the total development cost exceeds $100,000.
  • When the CITF Levy is not paid submitters are advised “The CITF receipt number is required by PlanSA for Building Consent Approval” including a link to Lodge or Pay a Levy | Levies | Construction Industry Training Board.
  • More CITF Levy information is now available via a link to the Leviable Work Reference Table | Construction Industry Training Board.
  • Development applications with a building consent under assessment on or after 1 January 2025 and the total development cost is under $100,000 the CITF levy question is now hidden.

Visit About Levies | Construction Industry Training Board for more information.

Latest version

Related content