There is no council to ring
Every national guide to opening a pet business ends with the same instruction: check with your local council. Canberra has no council to check with. The ACT has no local government layer at all, so Territory bodies do the work councils do everywhere else. We covered that in our national planning overview. This is what it means for your lease.
Development is decided by the Territory Planning Authority, which the Planning Act 2023 names as the decision-maker for a development application (legislation.act.gov.au). Licensing a pet business is a separate question, decided by the Animal Welfare Authority under the Animal Welfare Act 1992 (legislation.act.gov.au). You lodge a development application; what you receive is a development approval.
This guide is general information for pet business owners in the Australian Capital Territory. It is not legal, planning, accounting or financial advice, it does not account for your circumstances, and it does not account for your site. Australian development approval is set across state and territory legislation, territory-wide planning instruments and local planning schemes, each published separately by a different body. This guide brings that fragmented material together in one place. It is based on publicly available information, verified on 9 August 2026, and linked at the point each fact is stated so you can read the original. We maintain those links, not the rules: we re-check them, but we do not control what those bodies publish, and planning instruments change. Planning outcomes are site-specific and discretionary. Two identical businesses on two streets can get different answers, and nothing in this guide predicts what an authority will decide. You remain responsible for your own position: confirm it with the Territory Planning Authority or a qualified town planner, and make your own decision before you act. Petboost accepts no responsibility for any action taken on the basis of this article. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.
One vocabulary warning before you read around. The code track, merit track and impact track of the old 2007 Act are gone. The Planning Act 2023 has three categories: exempt, assessable (with significant development as a heavier sub-class) and prohibited. The Authority's own development applications page still mentions merit track applications (planning.act.gov.au). Treat that as residual, not current.
1. Your Crown lease decides whether you need approval at all
This is the part nobody explains, and in the ACT it is the whole story.
In a freehold state the planning scheme decides what may happen on a site, and your lease is a private contract with a landlord. Canberra adds a second layer. "Leasehold is ACT's system of land tenure", and the Crown lease over your block carries a purpose clause naming what the block may be used for. The Authority states the rule: "Leased land and buildings on the land can only be used for a purpose authorised by the lease" (planning.act.gov.au). Section 276(1) of the Planning Act 2023 puts it in statute: leased land "must not be used for a purpose other than a purpose authorised by the lease or this Act".
Now the part that saves money. Section 147 says an authorised use, meaning one authorised by the lease, "is exempt from requiring development approval". Section 150 adds that an exempt development may be undertaken without an application, without an approval and without an exemption assessment.
Key Takeaway: If the purpose clause on the Crown lease already permits what you intend to do, there is no DA. Not a shorter DA. None. The first question in Canberra is a lease question, not a zoning question.
Three things follow.
Building work can drag an exempt use back in. Section 148 is the counter-rule: carry out construction, alteration or demolition that itself needs development approval and the authorised use stops being exempt, and section 149 makes you apply for the works and the continuing use together. Section 149(3) stops that becoming a back door, because the Authority may not refuse the application only on the ground that the use alone would have been refused. You still have to apply. Narrower relief does exist: schedule 1 section 1.20 of the Planning (Exempt Development) Regulation 2023 exempts internal alteration that neither changes the building's class under the building code nor adds gross floor area to a non-residential building, provided, under criterion 4, it is not inconsistent with the lease (legislation.act.gov.au). The lease sits in that test twice.
If the lease does not permit your use, you need a lease variation, and a lease variation is itself a DA. The Authority says so plainly: "To vary a Crown lease, you need development approval" (planning.act.gov.au). Section 14(1)(f) makes varying a lease a form of development in its own right. Adding a new purpose or expanding an existing one also attracts a lease variation charge, which the Authority describes as "75% of the increased value of the lease", assessed on the highest and best use of the land. We are not publishing a worked charge, because the valuation formula sits in provisions we have not read.
You can make the Authority answer the lease question in writing before you sign. Section 164 obliges it to consider a development proposal when the proponent asks. Section 165(1) then obliges it to reply in writing on a list of points, including paragraph (e), "whether the proposed development is consistent with the existing lease applying to the land the subject of the development". On the 2026-27 schedule a pre-lodgement meeting including a written record of the meeting is Nil, and written pre-application advice on a development proposal is $413.08 (planning.act.gov.au). A prospective tenant can buy that before committing to anything.
To read the lease you need a land title search and then a Crown lease search, which needs volume and folio numbers. Access Canberra runs both (accesscanberra.act.gov.au). For your block and section numbers and the zone, the Authority points you at ACTmapi and the Territory Plan (planning.act.gov.au).
Working from home has its own exemption. Schedule 1 section 1.136 exempts a home business from requiring development approval where, among other conditions, no more than two people work on the lease at any time, everyone who works there lives there, no more than 40 square metres is used including storage, and the business averages no more than five vehicle arrivals a day over seven days.
2. What your business is called, and where it is allowed
The ACT is one of only two Australian jurisdictions that names pet grooming in its own planning instrument. The other is South Australia.
The Territory Plan 2023 Dictionary defines a personal service as "a shop used primarily for selling services and in which the sale of goods is ancillary to the service provided", and its published example uses include hairdresser, nail salon and "pet grooming salon" (legislation.act.gov.au). In Canberra you do not have to argue the point.
For daycare and boarding the class is an animal care facility: "a facility the purpose of caring, boarding, breeding, or raising of predominantly domestic or household animals", with example uses "catteries" and "kennels". Boarding kennels and catteries are named. Daycare is not, although it sits inside the "caring" limb on the face of the definition. That last step is our reading of the words, not a statement by the Authority. A pet shop is a shop, and a veterinary clinic is defined separately and expressly "does not include an animal care facility".
Then the consequence, which is the sharpest fact in this guide.
| Use | CZ1 Core | CZ2 Business | CZ3 Services | CZ4 Local Centre | CZ5 Mixed Use | CZ6 Leisure | IZ1 General Industrial | IZ2 Mixed Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal service (grooming salon) | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | not listed | Y |
| Animal care facility (daycare, boarding) | not listed | not listed | Y | Y | not listed | not listed | Y | Y |
| Shop (pet shop) | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | not listed | Y |
Read from the Territory Plan zone policies for commercial zones (legislation.act.gov.au) and industrial zones (legislation.act.gov.au). The commercial policy states the rule that makes those blanks bite: "Uses not listed in the table are prohibited."
So in the same town-centre shopfront, a grooming salon is permissible on the zone table and a dog daycare is prohibited on it. Those two businesses usually turn up in the same sentence of the same business plan.
Prohibited is not always the end of it. Section 156 lets a leaseholder apply where the use is authorised by the Crown lease and would otherwise be prohibited, and once the application is made the use is taken not to be prohibited. The Authority summarises it as "If a development use is authorised under a Crown lease then a DA may be considered" (planning.act.gov.au). That application costs $3,619.16 on top of the ordinary fee.
Two caveats. Classification does not tell you whether you need approval, because that is the lease and works question above, and they are separate. And both zone policies say district policies can add or remove uses in specific locations. We have not read those.
3. The four pathways
| Pathway | What triggers it | Who decides | The clock | Fee basis | Can neighbours object |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exempt development | The use is authorised by the Crown lease, or the work meets a schedule 1 exemption and is not inconsistent with the lease | Nobody. You do not apply | None | Nil to the Territory. A building surveyor may charge for an optional exemption assessment | No. There is no application and no notification |
| Assessable development (the ordinary DA) | Anything in the section 14 definition of development that is not exempt or prohibited, including beginning or changing a use | Territory Planning Authority | 30 working days if no representation is made, 45 if one is | Cost of work band, plus notification and lease search | Yes, on every DA, for 15 working days |
| Significant development | Only where the proposal needs a subdivision design application, design review panel consultation or an environmental impact statement | Territory Planning Authority | 60 working days | Same band, plus EIS fees where an EIS applies | Yes, for 20 working days and then a further 10 |
| Prohibited development | The use is not listed in the zone land use table | Generally you cannot lodge. A limited gateway applies where the use is authorised by the Crown lease | Ordinary clock if a gateway application is accepted | Ordinary fee plus $3,619.16 | Yes, if a gateway application is accepted |
A grooming salon, a daycare or a suburban boarding facility will not normally be a significant development, because that class is triggered by those three specific requirements rather than by size.
4. What it costs in 2026-27
The application fee is charged on the cost of the work, in bands. The $20,001 to $100,000 band is a base of $307.36 plus 0.585% of the amount over $20,000 (planning.act.gov.au, booklet at planning.act.gov.au).
Work that band out on a $60,000 fit-out and you get $307.36 plus $234.00, which is $541.36. That is our arithmetic on the published band, not a figure the Authority quotes for a fit-out.
The application fee is the small number. Two other line items land on a commercial DA.
- Public notification, charged as "Notification of all other developments (includes one sign)": $1,501.62. A commercial fit-out or change of use is not among the proposals exempted from parts of the notification requirement, so it pays in full. That is close to three times the application fee.
- Lease search, "Charged on all development applications on leased land (other than single residential applications)": $48.98.
Adding up those published line items, a $60,000 fit-out on leased land with no lease variation comes to $2,091.96 in Territory fees. A Crown lease variation component adds $2,732.33.
Then there is the ladder nobody plans for. Before lodgement your DA goes through a completeness check, an administrative step with no legal timeframe, and every failure is charged at an escalating rate: $240.98 for the first failure notice, then $719.12, then $1,680.59, then $3,597.03, then $1,909.99 for each additional notice. They are invoiced once the DA is finally accepted.
Four failed resubmissions therefore cost more than the application fee, the notification fee and the lease search combined. That is the entire argument for taking the free pre-lodgement meeting, or paying $413.08 for written advice, before you submit anything.
5. How long it takes
Table 192 of the Planning Act 2023 sets the maximum times for a decision: 30 working days where no representation is made, 45 where one is, and 60 for a significant development.
Four things sit on top of those numbers.
- Working day excludes more than weekends. Section 192(5) excludes Saturdays, Sundays, ACT public holidays and "a day in the period beginning on 20 December in a year and ending on 10 January the following year".
- The clock stops whenever the Authority asks for information, from the day it asks until the day you give it. Section 167 lets it ask more than once, with no cap, and both the request and your answer are published on the Authority website.
- It also stops on pre-decision advice, from the day the advice is given until the day you respond.
- Submitting is not lodging. The completeness check comes first, then the fees, and the DA is only lodged once they are paid. The Authority says there is no legal timeframe for the check, and that it strives to finish one within 5 to 10 working days (planning.act.gov.au).
Public notification applies to every DA: 15 working days on an ordinary one, 20 plus a further 10 on a significant development. On a commercial fit-out that means a notice on the Authority website, a sign on the site, and letters to adjoining lessees. If you are worried about a petition, the Authority says this: "A DA decision won't be based on how many representations received."
6. Existing use rights: the ACT does not need them
Other states protect an established use through an existing use rights regime. The ACT has none, and does not need one, because the right runs with the Crown lease instead.
Section 147(3) says an authorised use does not stop being exempt merely because the use is not continuous, because someone deals with the lease, or because a further lease is granted. Section 408 carries the same protection where a use was exempt when it began and later stops being exempt because the Act is amended. The Authority states the principle in plain words: "A development that is lawful when it begins, continues to be lawful."
There is a matching comfort for anyone expanding. Section 195 reads: "The refusal of a development application in relation to the use of land does not affect an existing use of land, or use of existing developments on the land." Apply to add boarding to an established grooming salon, get refused, and you keep the grooming salon.
What ends the protection is the lease ending: surrender, termination, or expiry with no application for a further lease within six months. The inverse is easy to miss. Failing to use land for a continuous period of at least a year for the purpose the lease was granted for is itself a controlled activity under schedule 4 of the Act.
7. Do you need a pet business licence as well?
Separate question, separate authority, and the answer differs by service.
The Animal Welfare Act 1992 defines a pet business as a pet shop, a business that boards an animal, or a business prescribed by regulation. The load-bearing definition is the next one along: "board, an animal, includes board the animal during the day or overnight". Nothing is currently prescribed under that third limb (legislation.act.gov.au). City Services lists who must be licensed by the Animal Welfare Authority: "pet shops that house or sell animals", "animal day care establishments" and "overnight animal boarding establishments" (cityservices.act.gov.au). Grooming appears in neither the inclusions nor the exclusions.
So a grooming-only ACT salon does not need a pet business licence. A dog daycare does, because day boarding is expressly caught, and so does an overnight boarding facility. The caution attached to that: a groomer who holds dogs for the day beyond what the groom needs, or who sells a spa day that is functionally day boarding, is on the wrong side of that definition.
A code of practice applies to grooming either way. The Animal Welfare (Pet Grooming Establishments) Code of Practice Approval 1993 is in force on the legislation register (legislation.act.gov.au), and its text covers animals held "for the purpose of grooming and bathing for fee or reward" in premises that "encompass shops, private dwellings and motor vehicles or trailers" (legislation.act.gov.au). Home-based and mobile groomers are squarely inside its scope.
Be precise about its legal effect, because it is often described loosely. It is an approved code under section 22 of the Animal Welfare Act, not a mandatory code under section 23, and the offence of recklessly failing to comply with a mandatory code does not reach it. Its real effect is a shield: section 20 makes conduct in accordance with an approved code an exception to the Part 2 animal welfare offences. Follow it and you have that protection. Ignore it and you do not commit an offence by the act of ignoring it, but you lose the protection. Its own section 3.1 still refers readers to ACTPLA, a body that no longer exists.
Daycare and boarding carry 2021 mandatory codes attached to the licence. We have not read those, so we are not describing what is in them.
8. If you are refused
Two steps, and the first is not a tribunal. Reconsideration by the Authority must be applied for within 20 working days of the decision, can only be sought by the applicant, costs $413.08, and is unavailable if a reconsideration or a tribunal review has already been made (planning.act.gov.au).
Review at ACAT, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, is the second (acat.act.gov.au). Section 507 of the Planning Act 2023 gives an eligible entity who is not the applicant 20 working days from being given notice of the decision, and states that the period "may not be extended". A conditional approval is reviewable by the applicant on the conditions alone, which matters, because conditions are usually the real outcome. From 1 July 2026 an application for review of an administrative decision costs $443.00 for a natural person and $886.00 for a corporation, and the same fee applies to someone applying to become a party (acat.act.gov.au). ACAT publishes a day-by-day timetable against a legislative requirement to decide planning reviews within 120 days (acat.act.gov.au).
One point sits squarely in your favour. Standing turns on material detriment, and schedule 5 of the Planning Act 2023 says that term "does not include detriment suffered by an entity only because of a decision that increases, or is likely to increase, direct or indirect competition with the entity's business, business partner, close friend or family member". A rival groomer cannot object on the ground that you will take their customers. It is in the statute.
What we could not verify
- District policies. Both zone policies say district policies specify additional uses that are permissible or prohibited in specific locations. We did not read the ten district policies, so one could change the table above for your suburb.
- Zone tables other than commercial and industrial. We read those two land use tables only. Residential, community facility, parks and recreation, transport and services and non-urban zones were not read.
- The lease variation charge calculation. The Authority publishes the 75% figure and the highest and best use basis. The valuation formula sits in provisions we did not read, so we are not producing a worked figure.
- The three 2021 mandatory codes of practice for sale of animals, overnight boarding and animal day care. We confirmed their names and that they attach to the licence. We did not read their contents.
- How the ACT derives cost of work for the fee bands. The fee schedule refers to a Building Cost Guide that we did not locate.
Verified 9 August 2026 against the sources below. Planning instruments change, and planning decisions are made on the merits of each site, so nothing here predicts what your authority will decide. Check the linked source and confirm your own position with the Territory Planning Authority or a qualified town planner before you act.
Sources
- ACT Legislation Register, Planning Act 2023: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Planning (Exempt Development) Regulation 2023: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Territory Plan 2023: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Territory Plan 2023 Part G Dictionary: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Territory Plan 2023 Part E02 Commercial Zones Policy: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Territory Plan 2023 Part E03 Industrial Zones Policy: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Animal Welfare Act 1992: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Animal Welfare Regulation 2001: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Animal Welfare (Pet Grooming Establishments) Code of Practice Approval 1993: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Legislation Register, Code of Practice Pet Grooming Establishments in the ACT: legislation.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Resources including the fees and charges booklets: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Government, Planning Lease Administration Building Services Fees and Charges 2026-27: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Crown leases: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Changes to a Crown lease: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Understanding your block: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Development applications: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, After you apply: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Amend or appeal an application: planning.act.gov.au
- ACT Planning, Prohibited developments: planning.act.gov.au
- Access Canberra, Search the ACT Land Titles Register: accesscanberra.act.gov.au
- ACT City Services, Animal welfare: cityservices.act.gov.au
- ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Review of ACT Government decisions: acat.act.gov.au
- ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Guide to ACAT review of planning decisions: acat.act.gov.au
- ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, ACAT fees: acat.act.gov.au