SERVICES — Hickey Oatley

Your partner, at every stage.

Hickey Oatley brings over 15 years of experience delivering successful outcomes. We work closely with architects, builders and consultants to make planning feel like part of the design process, not a barrier to it.

From day one, we assess each project against local and state planning rules. We then tailor our approach to suit the context, constraints and goals of every site.

Our services include:

Hickey Oatley regularly provides advice on a site’s development potential identifying its suitability for the intended purposes, key potential risks and costs and/or its highest and best use. This advice is tailored to the client’s needs and can be in form of succinct written advice or, a formal report which can be passed on third parties and stakeholders.
Knowing the age of your home is critical when renovating or purchasing within Brisbane’s Traditional building character areas or Ipswich’s Character areas. To help you understand your property’s development potential and constraints, Hickey Oatley offers Housing Dating Packages. We research your property’s history and provide a formal report confirming whether the dwelling was constructed prior to 1911 or 1947.
Hickey Oatley specialises in preparing development applications and managing the assessment process through to decision. We have extensive experience preparing both simple and complex applications for a wide range of developments across the State and are an accredited RiskSmart consultant with Logan City Council.
Whether it is in response to onsite discoveries, escalating construction costs or a change in project direction, Hickey Oatley regularly prepares and manages “minor” and “other” changes requests to existing approvals.
Depending on the type of development approval, a standard currency period of 2, 4 or 6 years will apply. At Hickey Oatley, we understand that project timelines don’t always align neatly with statutory approval periods. We regularly assist our clients by preparing and lodging currency period extension applications, ensuring approvals remain valid and projects can proceed without unnecessary delay or risk
In certain circumstances, when low-risk, innocuous work triggers the need for a development application to be lodged, Hickey Oatley prepare, lodge and manage a request for an exemption certificate to Council or the State to avoid having to lodge a DA. Examples of such circumstances include, but are not limited to, minor work on a heritage place, an above ground pool at the rear of a Dwelling the Brisbane’s Traditional building character overlay, a change of use in an existing building affecting by the Flood overlay.
While separate to the DA process, Hickey Oatley prepares and lodges early referral requests for houses that do not comply with the minimum setback requirements prescribed by the Queensland Development Code. Commonly known as siting variations, these applications involve consultation with affected neighbours and are essential in order to secure building approval.