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View the fact sheets below to find the permits that relate to your business. 

If your industry is not listed below, please contact the Economic Development Team.

Industry Guidelines

The guidelines are designed to help you understand the permits required for your particular business sector:

• Fitness Businesses
• Hospitality Businesses
• Music Venues
• Personal Services
• Recreation and Entertainment
• Small Industry and Manufacturing

The fact sheets are designed to help you understand the types of permits required from the City of Ballarat 

The City of Ballarat’s Economic Development Team is dedicated to supporting businesses, small, large, or just starting. By providing us with the information about your business at the start, we can direct you to the right people in the City of Ballarat to progress your vision.  

The team is available to assist you to:

• Conduct initial research to identify commercial or industrial sites
• Guide you through council's regulatory processes
• Connect you with regional markets, key influencers, and business associations
• Connect you with other council services  

Phone:  5320 5500
Email: economicdevelopment@ballarat.vic.gov.au 
Online application form: Small Business Application

The team will then be in contact with you to discuss your business over the phone or to arrange an in person meeting.  

Once you have confirmed whether you need a planning permit, you may like to consider what your business will look like to your customers.

This page discusses signage and construction requirements

This could include tables and chairs or signage on the footpath.

To trade from a City of Ballarat managed land, you will need to apply for a permit.

If you have recently purchased a business with an existing outdoor trading permit, you will need to apply again.

Outdoor trading activates public spaces and creates vibrancy to our streetscapes, however we need to balance community use of the footpath and precinct too.

Outdoor trading covers three broad categories:

• Outdoor dining: such as tables, chairs, heaters, pot plants, umbrellas, barrier screens
• Advertising signage: such as temporary A-frame signs or tear banners
• Displaying goods: such as products being placed on the footpath for sale or hire

If your vision goes beyond the above-listed points, impacts existing City of Ballarat assets and contributes to activation of a streetscape please make contact with the Economic Development team, to discuss your concept in more detail.

For more information, refer to the resources on this page

Like most businesses, you may want an exterior sign to help customers find you.

The City of Ballarat need to make sure that signs don’t unduly detract from the environment, so a planning permit is sometimes required before signs can be installed.

When you talk about your business concept with the Economic Development Team, they will take your signage vision into account. They can assist you in determining whether you need to apply for a Planning Permit.

Modifying your building can help give your business character and brand, however it is important to ensure the structural integrity of your build, together with the impact that your construction will have on the precinct.

Planning and Building assessments will look at different aspects to the application.

Industry Guidelines

The guidelines are designed to help you understand the permits required for your particular business sector:

• Fitness Businesses
• Hospitality Businesses
• Music Venues
• Personal Services
• Recreation and Entertainment
• Small Industry and Manufacturing

The fact sheets are designed to help you understand the types of permits required from the City of Ballarat 

The City of Ballarat’s Economic Development Team is dedicated to supporting businesses, small, large, or just starting. By providing us with the information about your business at the start, we can direct you to the right people in the City of Ballarat to progress your vision.  

The team is available to assist you to:

• Conduct initial research to identify commercial or industrial sites
• Guide you through council's regulatory processes
• Connect you with regional markets, key influencers, and business associations
• Connect you with other council services  

Phone:  5320 5500
Email: economicdevelopment@ballarat.vic.gov.au 
Online application form: Small Business Application

The team will then be in contact with you to discuss your business over the phone or to arrange an in person meeting.  

If you do not agree with a City of Ballarat planning decision or a decision has not been made, the next step is to submit a planning dispute with Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) 

Planning Disputes are about decisions made on the use, development and subdivision of land, including planning permits, objections to planning permits and planning schemes. Including a failure to make a decision.

Visit the Planning Disputes page to find all of the information you need to know before you apply and the process involved. Including:

• Before you apply
• After you apply
• Respond to a VCAT case
• Join a VCAT case

You can also visit the Planning and environment resources hub to learn more about how VCAT resolve planning and environment disputes.

View the Current objector applications for review

Each day VCAT publish applications for review that have been received under section 82 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. This information allows councils and responsible authorities to check whether VCAT received objections to permit applications within the required 28 days. VCAT do not send this information to councils.

The list includes all new applications for review received in the previous 48 hours. This information remains online for 30 days.​

Please contact the team via:

• Email: planninginfo@ballarat.vic.gov.au
• Phone: 53205500

For any queries regarding the process:

• Email: planninginfo@ballarat.vic.gov.au
• Phone: 53205500

The subdivision process can be complicated so if unsure where to start please contact the Statutory Planning team for advice. 

The best way to start your planning journey is to submit a application for written advice on planning permit requirements or submit a request for a pre-application meeting.

You need to engage a licensed Land Surveyor to first prepare a plan of subdivision. This is the formal plan submitted with your planning permit application and ultimately your application for certification.

In Victoria licensed Land Surveyors are the only people authorised to determine the location of your title boundaries and surveying new title boundaries.

The Association of Consulting Surveyors Victoria and the Institute of Surveyors Victoria can help you find a licensed land surveyor.

Apply for and obtain a planning permit to subdivide: 

1. Lodge a planning permit application via Council’s eServices portal.
2. Ask your Licensed Land Surveyor to lodge on your behalf.  

Application fees apply. Please refer to the Summary of Planning and Subdivision Fees 

We may refer your application to servicing authorities including, but not limited to, the local water supply and sewerage authority as well as electricity provider. 

If your planning permit application is approved, it will include conditions that must be satisfied for the subdivision to proceed. This may include conditions from servicing authorities or to complete public works or other works in association with the development of the land. 

Once a planning permit is issued to subdivide land, the subdivision plan must then be certified in accordance with the Subdivision Act 1988.

Most Land Surveyors are registered with SPEAR (Surveying and Planning through Electronic Applications and Referrals) and can lodge your certification application using this on-line portal.

If your Land Surveyor is a registered SPEAR user, they can also register you as a guest. This enables you to track the progress of your application on-line.

Before Council certifies your plan of subdivision, in addition to discharging the requirements of permit conditions, servicing authorities must also consent to the plan being certified.

Additional fees are payable, please refer to the Summary of Planning and Subdivision Fees

Statement of Compliance (SoC) is issued by Council once all requirements of a planning permit are met and all works have been completed and approved by all servicing authorities.

Once you have obtained SoC, you then lodge this and your certified plan with Land Victoria who will then commence the process of issuing titles for the new lots.

When subdividing land into three or more lots (or two lots where the potential exists to further subdivide at a later date), you are required to make a Public Open Space (POS) contribution.

This contribution is a requirement of Clause 53.01 of the Ballarat Planning Scheme.

Typically, a financial contribution equal to five percent of the unimproved value of the land is payable prior to the issue of SoC. In larger subdivisions however, Council may require up to five percent of the land to be set aside as POS.

Importantly, POS applies to all land within a residential, commercial or industrial zone and applies to not only residential developments, but also commercial and industrial developments.

Exemptions apply. Please refer to Clause 53.01 of the Ballarat Planning Scheme for further information.

Please note alternate POS contributions apply in Ballarat's Current Growth Areas (Ballarat West and Alfredton West)

Once your plan has been Certified you will need to email us at info@ballarat.vic.gov.au to request a valuation of your land. Please be sure to reference the planning permit number (for example PLP/2024/1) when making a request.

Your land is assessed and valued by a qualified and experienced valuer contracted by the City of Ballarat.

Once the valuation has been finalised, Council will forward this to you along with a letter confirming the amount payable and a reference number.

Submit your POS contributions payment via Council’s eServices portal.

• Please have this reference number to hand when making payment.
• If payment of the contribution has not been made within 12 months of the date of the land valuation, a new valuation will be required and the POS contribution could vary.
• Please note, Statutory Planning Officers will not seek a second or subsequent land valuation until such time as you make a formal request.

For any queries regarding the process:

• Email: planninginfo@ballarat.vic.gov.au
• Phone: 53205500

1. You can apply to amend a planning permit to via the eservices portal https://eservices.ballarat.vic.gov.au/ePathway/Production/Web/CustomerService/PropertySearch.aspx?ERB=33117 
   (this link doesn't work for me, is this the correct link?)
2. Submit an amendment via email: planninginfo@ballarat.vic.gov.au

When submitting an amendment via email please provide the following:

• Completed Application to Amend a Planning Permit form this form may need to have contact information updated also, will clarify and let you know
• Cover letter detailing the proposed amendments
• Amended plans documenting the proposal
• Relevant supporting technical documents
• Prescribed fee*

*Please refer to the Summary of Planning and Subdivision Fees 

***Lodge an application to Amend a previously approved Planning Permit*** provide direct link

Permits may be amended to reflect new ideas and the time within which a permit must be acted upon (typically two years from the date of issue) may also be extended, subject to compliance with defined criteria.

The planning permit amendment process is dependent upon the nature of the proposed changes.

For minor matters, amendments may be facilitated via the ‘secondary consent’ process. This is an informal assessment process that does not require public notice and does not typically require referral to other City of Ballarat departments or government agencies. This informal process does not allow for amendments to the wording of a permit and must again satisfy defined criteria.

A more formal amendment may be required where the proposed changes are more extensive. The process to formally amend a permit is governed by Section 72 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and follows the same process as a new permit application.