LayeredGeo for town planners

Built for planning workflows

Planning Maps is designed around how town planners actually work - fast site screening across multiple addresses, concise constraint summaries for clients, and documented data sources suitable for DA submissions and planning reports. All overlay data is sourced directly from council ArcGIS services and the NSW ePlanning Portal, and the report includes full data source references for every overlay group.

Common planning-stage uses

• Pre-lodgement site screening - identify all applicable overlays before preparing a development application
• Site due diligence - overlay summary for acquisition advice or feasibility assessments
• DA submissions - attach a documented constraint summary as supporting material
• Portfolio review - screen multiple sites consistently without manual council portal searches
• Client briefing - plain-language overlay summaries with development implications for each group
• Identifying technical consultants - terrain, geology, and groundwater context helps flag where a geotechnical or environmental engineer is warranted

Overlay groups covered

Each Planning Maps report covers seven overlay groups: planning zone (land use category and assessment pathway), flood overlays (risk mapping, overland flow, coastal inundation, and historical extents), bushfire hazard (category and AS 3959 BAL implications), heritage (local heritage, character areas, and State Heritage Register), transport noise corridors (road and rail), vegetation overlays (native vegetation, waterway and wetland buffers, urban canopy), and environmental overlays (biodiversity, koala habitat, MSES/MLES, ecological corridors). Plus distance to the nearest bus stop and train station.

Supported coverage

QLD: Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, Redland, Mackay, Townsville, Cassowary Coast, Gympie, and Mount Isa - plus state-wide QLD datasets.
NSW: State-wide via the NSW ePlanning Portal.

Data currency

Overlays are updated periodically from source services - typically monthly to quarterly for most councils. Each report includes the data retrieval date. Users should verify current overlay status with the relevant council or competent authority before preparing formal planning advice or lodging a development application.

Important limitation

Planning Maps is a desktop screening tool based on government-published spatial datasets. It does not replace planning judgement, statutory review, site-specific engineering advice, or formal legal interpretation of planning scheme provisions. Overlay boundaries are subject to change through planning instrument amendments.