quick facts
Peta started her career working in Council. Which means she understands “how things work on the inside”, what the key drivers are, and what makes them tick. She also has many long-standing relationships as a result.
BTP has been shaking things up for over 10 years now or as we like to say … we are out of the unpredictable “newborn phase”, but far from hitting the “grumpy and ready to retire” phase … aka, in the sweet spot.
We like to take a no BS approach with what we do. This means we give you the same honest straight talking feedback we would our own fam bam.
Last year we did approx 370 jobs (detailed reviews, prelodgements, apps etc). Not bad for “a small fry”. Yep, we will be honest, the automation magic we rock behind the scenes is a big factor in that … it helps us “bat above our average” #Credit WhereCreditIsDue
What’s our approval rate you ask? Well, it was 100% last year ... and the year before ... and the year before that ... aaannnddd the year before that ... aaaaannnnnddddd ... yeah, you get the idea.
Hands down, the number one reason clients say that they go with us when accepting our agreements is “recommendation” ... be it from a friend, family member or industry professional. Nawww gotta love that grapevine love!
Brissy is our hood and yeah, we get around …
Zoom in to explore the suburbs we have worked in to date, and click on the pins to see how many projects we’ve tackled in each area so far. You will quickly notice that we spend a lot of time hanging out in the inner western suburbs, especially around Ashgrove, Bardon, and Paddington.
Meet the team
The Brisbane Town Planning FAM BAM is made up of three equally important characters. with Peta our HEAD HONCHO/Principal Planner, KIM our ROOKIE PLANNER/CLIENT CUPID, and charlie, the robot that keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes.
PETA
Professional on the outside and slightly loco on the inside … which means she is serious when she needs to be and light-hearted when she doesn’t.
Peta has been kicking about in the planning world for over 20 years now. After graduating from UQ (with the planning degree), she worked in Brisbane City Council’s West Team. Initially assessing applications, and later working as the customer liaison officer (aka general planning enquiry person). She then jumped over to the “other side of the fence”, to work private firm on the north side of Brisbane. In 2014, after 7 years in the private world, she started BTP … with the desire to “do things differently”.
Likes – Chocolate, crazy physical challenges, biz innovation/automation, random OS travel experiences, and challenging expectations.
Dislikes – Small talk (especially on the phone), cooking, and bureaucratic red tape.
kim
Having joined the team in 2020, Kim spent the early days behind the scenes focusing on research tasks. Tasks like reviewing previous approvals on dev i and scouring online resources like realestate.com, for info to support performance justifications. Or reviewing historic records (postal records, Detail Plans, etc.) for pre-1911 checks.
Her critical thinking and problem-solving skills soon took centre stage, and as a result, her role has evolved into sooooo much more.
Kim’s role is now as an “Assistant Planner meets Client Cupid” kind of thing. Yep, it’s a weird mix, but it works. She is now Peta’s “right-hand woman” so to speak, supporting Peta to do her thing. While also ensuring clients stay up to date on their jobs/feel the BTP luv.
Likes – Her Shitzu dog Vodka, and hitting the beach.
Dislikes – Negative vibes.
“CHARLIE”
A play on Peta’s last name Charles, “Charlie” is the nickname given to BTP’s automated town planner.
Developed in 2018, “her” main role is to use automation magic to review sites … to dig up dirt (so to speak) on a property. So that people know what they are in for or up against before they start financially and emotionally committing to a property/design. She is also super helpful in other areas of the biz that people never see.
Check out the working with “Charlie” section for more information on how you can tap into “her” automated magic for yourself.
Likes – Repetitive tasks, and “open data” sources.
Dislikes – Website updates that break “her” coding, and slow internet connections.
You have probably realised by now that we like to buck the serious “professional” norm, and embrace a more approachable and light-hearted vibe. Nothing against the traditional approach … it just isn’t us!
Scroll down to see the other ways our approach differs from “the norm”.
our approach
Here are 5 other things that we believe make our approach different.
Number 1 - Give me some sugar baby!
We passionately believe that “you get more with sugar than the whip”. Meaning that we deliberately focus on creating positive and friendly working relationships with the Council peeps.
Why? We are all about the positive vibes man … unicorns and rainbows for all right!
Jokes aside, we believe that we as professionals can have differences of opinions … yet we can still work together in a respectful way to get the best outcome for the client. More importantly for you though, we think that you tend to have more open/frank and impromptu conversations with “friends”, and more often than not, you have a better read on what they are thinking/what’s coming. Which means we get quicker results with less fuss for all involved.
Does this approach suit every client and every job … nope! If you are pushing a big development job, that will no doubt end up in court as it is triggering a million performance outcomes … you want a whip-yielding (aka “bulldog”) planner to push your case. That kind of work isn’t “our jam” though … “ain’t nobody got time” to go to court on our kind of housey jobs. We leave that to the big boys :P
Number 2 - Straight-talking feedback
We pride ourselves on providing honest, %-based chances of success feedback … feedback that we would give our own fam bam.
You will regularly hear us saying things like “if you can get written support from the neighbours, we would give this one an 85-90% chance of success” or “if we were in your shoes and this was our property, this is what we would do …”. Not the wishy washy “the idea has some merit” type stuff, that leaves you scratching your head and questioning which direction to run in.
Oh and we won’t let you proceed down the application path unless we “hand on heart” believe that the outcome discussed will be supported by Council. There may be a few revisions or tweaks required along the way to get there, but we will always explain what they will be before you hand over any mullah. So you know what you/your clients are getting yourself into before we start.
Number 3 - Knowledge is power!
If you are interested in learning more about the rules/how things work/why things are the way they are then “pull up a seat”! We love sharing our knowledge/what we have learnt so far (in a jargon free light-hearted way) via our socials and if people show an interest, via our email enquiry responses.
Don’t worry, if you are time poor and/or really don’t care about the details, we can tailor our feedback to suit. Just let us know and we can “cut straight to the chase” with our responses, and tailor our communication to suit.
Number 4 - Niching
We focus on the housey space in Brissy, Brisvegas … aka Brisbane. We lodge hundreds of apps each year in this space, which, when combined with our positive working relationships with Council peeps, means that we know the ins and outs of this niche and can stay up to date and ahead of the curve on rule changes. So you know you are getting accurate advice that won’t bite you in the backside down the track.
Number 5 - Relationships
We appreciate the value of having a “phone a friend” relationship with a town planner … someone you can reach out to when a new job comes up, a client throws a curve ball at you etc. Everything we do in terms of our socials media, the free “Charlie” reports and free initial concept reviews are designed to create an easy, safe, non judgy and low friction relationship for our BD buddies.
Now that you’ve got a sense of who we are and what we are about … check out the testimonials below to what our clients have to say about our non-standard approach.
what our clients have to say about us
CLICK ON THE RIGHT ARROW TO READ MORE
