If your land is subject to an SBO or is prone to stormwater flooding the following would help you getting flood advice/information and SBO consent to your plan:

• You can know if your land is affected by SBO or any stormwater flooding by several ways like emailing us  from the property report or websites like Greater Geelong Planning Scheme Maps (linked in related articles). 
• If unsure please contact our Planning Department to know whether you require a planning permit (PP) to build. A PP is generally required for buildings/works on land subject to SBO. Exemptions to this can be found in the Greater Geelong Planning Scheme Ordinance Clause 44.05 (same website as stated above).
• Please obtain a flood advice at an early stage of the preparation of your building/ development plan. This is to avoid any unwanted objection to your PP application.
• If you are eligible for VicSmart PP please obtain an SBO Consent prior to applying for PP. Ideally your plan should be in line with our flood advice generally you obtain earlier. 
• To proceed with VicSmart PP application you will need to submit the consent documents (report and stamped plan) to the Citys Planning Department together with other  requirements from VicSmart checklist.
• In absence of any building plan you may request for indicative flood advice and/or data like applicable flood levels required floor levels etc. to help planning.

It generally takes one to four weeks for us to provide a flood advice or SBO Consent.