Heritage Impact Statement
If your property is a listed heritage item, is in a heritage conservation area, or is adjacent to a heritage item, a Heritage Impact Statement is required with the application. It assesses the significance of the item or area and how the proposal affects it. Heritage status also generally removes complying development eligibility, so the pathway changes as well as the documentation.
Free planning consultation
- 2–3 weeks
- Quoted per site - typically from $1,800 + GST
- Quoted fixed after a free scope check
Where heritage applications succeed
Design strategy, more than documentation. The proposals that get approved generally retain the street-facing presentation and contributory fabric, locate new work to the rear or in a form clearly readable as new, and avoid competing with the original in scale or detail.
The proposals that struggle attempt to replicate the heritage character in new work, or place bulk where it reads from the street.
How it works
Status confirmation
1 day
LEP heritage schedule and planning certificate check.
Significance and impact assessment
1–2 weeks
Coordinated with a heritage consultant, including site inspection.
Integration
2–3 weeks total
Findings integrated into the design response and the planning case.
What we take off your hands
What EHUP handles
- Confirming heritage status from the LEP schedule and planning certificate
- Coordinating the Heritage Impact Statement
- Advising on design responses that heritage officers support
- Integrating the heritage findings with the planning case
- Managing heritage referral within council
What you don't have to deal with
- A design approach heritage will not accept, discovered at assessment
- Assuming a conservation area is less constrained than a listed item
Frequently asked questions
Does being in a conservation area mean I cannot renovate?
No. Conservation areas are about managing change rather than preventing it, and sympathetic alterations and rear additions are approved regularly. What is generally resisted is change to the street-facing presentation and the removal of contributory fabric. Understanding that distinction is most of the design strategy.
What does a Heritage Impact Statement assess?
The heritage significance of the item or area, the elements that carry that significance, the impact of the proposal on them, and the measures that mitigate that impact. It is an argument about significance, not an aesthetic opinion.
Does heritage status affect the approval pathway?
Yes, and materially - heritage items and conservation areas generally cannot use the complying development pathway, so a DA is required. That affects both the timeframe and the documentation.
What if the item next door is heritage listed but mine is not?
Development adjacent to a heritage item can still require a Heritage Impact Statement, because the setting of the item is part of what is protected. It is a narrower assessment than for the item itself, but it is frequently required.
Related approvals
Specialist Reports
Most applications of any size need reports from specialists outside town planning.
Bushfire Assessment
If your lot is mapped as bushfire prone, a bushfire assessment is required and it changes two things: the construction standard your building must meet, expressed as a Bushfire Attack Level, and usually the approval pathway, because bushfire-prone land removes complying development eligibility in most cases.
Traffic Impact Assessment
A traffic impact assessment quantifies the trips a development generates, assesses the effect on the surrounding network and intersections, and demonstrates that parking, servicing and access arrangements work.
BCA & Fire Safety Report
When a building's use changes - a house becoming an office, a warehouse becoming a gym - its Building Code of Australia classification can change with it, and that triggers stricter fire safety requirements around evacuation routes, smoke detection, fire-rated materials and emergency lighting.
Waste Management Plan
Most DAs above a council-set construction value threshold - commonly around $5,000, set locally - need a Waste Management Plan detailing how construction and demolition waste will be sorted, reused, recycled or disposed of, usually against a target diversion-from-landfill rate.
Why clients choose EHUP
- 10+
- 250+
- 17
- 1
Not sure which approval you need?
Tell us the address and what you want to do. We'll help identify the appropriate planning pathway, whether it is exempt development, complying development or a full DA. Your first conversation is free.