Get Your Planning Approved
— Without Wasting Time or Money
Property owners across Regional Victoria and Southern NSW bring us the projects other consultants can’t crack.
- 30 years working with regional councils
- Applications rescued after previous refusal
- The firm other planners hand their hardest files to
You’re probably here to find out where you stand.
Maybe you’ve a project in mind — a dwelling, a subdivision, a change of use — and you want to know whether planning will be simple or a fight, before you spend a cent on plans or surveys.
Or maybe you’re already in it. A permit that’s turned messy. A subdivision that stalls at every step. An application that came back refused.
Either way, you want a straight answer.
Leanne Maxwell has spent 30 years across regional Victoria and southern New South Wales — not just lodging applications, but solving the problems that don’t have obvious answers. The ones that need someone who knows the local schemes clause by clause, understands how councils think, and finds the pathway others miss.
She’s the person other planning consultants call when a matter is beyond them.
“A conversation with Leanne costs nothing. It can save you a great deal.”
Why good projects get knocked back
If a permit’s been refused — or you can’t even tell whether you need one — it’s usually not because you missed something obvious.
Regional Victoria’s planning scheme wasn’t written for applicants. It was written for planners. Triggers, overlays, zone provisions and local policy interact in ways nobody signposts, and council guidance rarely tells you whether your project will fly, stall or fail before you’ve paid for drawings.
And it’s getting harder. Years of state planning reforms have changed what needs a permit, how councils assess it, and what they can approve. Plenty of owners are working from rules that are quietly out of date.
Getting the wrong answer early is expensive — in fees, in redesigns, and in opportunities that disappear while a matter sits unresolved.
Honest advice, before you spend more
Some projects shouldn’t go ahead at all — and Leanne will tell you. She’ll give you a straight read on what’s realistic, including when a matter is harder than it looks, and what that means for your options.
When the planning got hard, they called us…
Their Application Was Refused. We Got It Approved
When a planning application submitted by another consultant was refused, the client came to Leanne to find out whether the project could still be rescued. She reviewed the issues behind the refusal, identified what the original submission had not adequately addressed, and guided the client through a revised approach.
The application was ultimately approved — an outcome the client had been told was unlikely.
When the planning gets hard, this is the desk it lands on
When a Ballarat landowner was told a dwelling on their farming zone block wasn’t possible — we found the pathway others had missed.
When a Shepparton area farmer needed a machinery shed permit before seeding season — we got it across the line without unnecessary back and forth.
When a planning application came back refused — we reviewed what went wrong and got it approved on resubmission.
When another consultancy hit a matter too complex to handle — they referred it to us.
When a rural subdivision looked like it couldn’t be done — we found the provision that made it work.
When a client had spent months getting conflicting advice from council and their conveyancer — one conversation with Leanne resolved it.
When a heritage overlay was complicating a straightforward extension — we knew exactly what council’s heritage adviser needed to see.
When a development was partially in a floodplain and approval looked uncertain — we worked through the referral requirements and kept the project viable.
There are dozens more. One of them almost certainly looks like yours...