Town Planning In Simple Terms

Michael Arnold of Arnold Development Consultants explains town planning in simple terms

As a town planner my job and my teams job as town planners is to look at the zoning of the land.

What can be done in each zone?

What is the best zone for someone to develop the property?

For example if somebody wants to turn a house from residential use to commercial they may require a town planning application to do so. Sometimes its in the right zone and other times it might be on the fringe of a residential zone or the fringe of a commercial zone. So in order to be included in the correct zone we investigate if we can do a Material Change of Use (MCU), so that their use is lawful. This also increases the value of land because commercial rents for more than residential and when sold will also sell for higher than residential property.