Check the use before you sign the lease
The fitout is the visible cost. The approval risk sits in whether the Code envisages your use in that zone, and which pathway it lands in.
Where South Australia catches people out
The premises operated as something similar before
Similar is not the same. Whether the Code envisages your use in that zone, and how it is assessed, can differ from the previous occupant's — and the previous consent does not transfer to a different use.
You assume car parking is settled because the building exists
Parking is assessed against the use. Taking over premises approved for a different one can create a shortfall on paper even where nothing physical changes, and that has to be justified.
Notification is an afterthought
The assessment pathway determines whether your application is notified, and notification is where neighbour concerns about hours, noise and traffic enter the process. It affects timeframes as much as outcome.
What to use, and when
SA Planning Insight
$39Tells you what the Code says about that use in that zone at that address, and what the assessment would have to address.
SA Planning Reports
From $399A written assessment supporting a change-of-use application, prepared against the applicable policy.
Talk to a planner
On requestFor licensed premises, contested locations, or where the answer decides whether the lease is viable.
Getting started
The use question is answerable before you commit, and it is far cheaper than discovering it once the fitout is underway.
General information about the South Australia planning system, not advice on a particular site. What applies to a property depends on its zone, the controls affecting it and what is proposed.