Almost every hospitality project that blows its budget does so for the same reason. Not finishes, not joinery — services and approvals. An exhaust duct that cannot reach the roof. A grease arrestor that will not fit under the floor. A change of use that needed a full Development Application when the operator budgeted for a fast-track certificate. Each of these is discoverable before you sign a lease, and each of them is routinely discovered afterwards.

This guide walks the whole compliance path for a café, restaurant or bar in New South Wales: which planning approval you need, what the food safety standards demand of your build, what Sydney Water expects before you discharge a drop of wastewater, and what the ventilation standards do to your kitchen layout. It is written for operators, not certifiers, so the technical clauses are cited but explained.

Section 01The three approval pathways

Every fitout in NSW travels one of three routes. Which one you get is not a choice you make — it is determined by your site, your zoning, the use you are changing from, and how far your design strays from a set of published standards. Knowing the route on day one is the single most useful thing you can establish, because it sets your timeline, your consultant list and a meaningful slice of your budget.

Section 02Change of use: the trap that catches everyone

The most expensive misunderstanding in hospitality is assuming that because the previous tenant sold coffee, you inherit their approval. You do not. Approvals attach to the use and the premises, and a lapsed, unapproved or differently-defined prior use leaves you starting from scratch.

Three questions to answer before signing

1. What is the approved use of this tenancy right now? Not what the last tenant did — what the council's records say is approved. Ask the agent for the Occupation Certificate and the original consent. If nobody can produce them, treat the tenancy as unapproved.
2. Is my intended use permissible in this zone? The complying pathway only works where the Local Environmental Plan land use table already permits food and drink premises with consent. If it does not, no certifier can help you.
3. Did the previous use ever stop? An approval for a use can lapse if the use is abandoned for a sustained period. A tenancy that has sat empty for years may no longer carry the benefit of its old consent.

You will also need to notify as a food business

Separately from planning, every food business in NSW must notify the relevant enforcement agency — usually your local council — before trading, under the Food Act 2003 (NSW). Certain higher-risk activities require a licence from the NSW Food Authority instead of, or in addition to, council notification. Handling or processing meat is the common example. Notification is quick and inexpensive, but it triggers an inspection, and that inspection tests the build against the standards in the next section.

Section 03Food safety: Standard 3.2.3 and AS 4674

Two documents govern how your premises must be built. Food Standards Code Standard 3.2.3 (Food Premises and Equipment) sets the legal obligation. AS 4674-2004 (Design, construction and fit-out of food premises) is the Australian Standard that tells you how to satisfy it in practice, and it is what your council's environmental health officer will have in hand at the final inspection. Petra Group designs to AS 4674 as standard.

The recurring principle behind both is simple: every surface a food business touches must be smooth, impervious, free of gaps and cracks, and cleanable without dismantling anything. Most inspection failures are failures of that principle, not exotic technical breaches.

Section 04Trade waste and grease arrestors

Wastewater from a commercial kitchen is trade wastewater, not sewage, and you cannot legally discharge it without written approval from your water utility. In the Sydney Water area you apply through Sydney Water Tap in®, and the agreement must be in place before you discharge. Operating without one is an offence under the Sydney Water Act 1994.

Approvals are also commonly tied to your building certification. A trade waste application left until the end of the program is one of the more reliable ways to delay handover, because the utility works to its own timetable and does not accelerate for your opening date.

What actually determines the size

Sizing is driven by the fixtures connected to it — sinks, dishwashers, combi ovens, floor wastes in the prep area — and is calculated to give the wastewater enough retention time for fats and solids to separate. Add a second dishwasher or a third sink late in design and the calculation moves. The arrestor is usually the least flexible item on site, so it should be sized off a fixture schedule at concept stage, not at fitout.

The three things that catch operators out

• Access for pump-out. The arrestor must be reachable by a pump-out truck and openable safely. An arrestor buried in a basement with no truck access is not an arrestor — the utility will not accept it, and the tenancy may simply not work for food.
• Upstream fittings. Bucket traps in preparation sinks and floor wastes are commonly required so solids never reach the arrestor. Cheap, easy to forget, and checked.
• Who installs it. A licensed plumber must do the work and arrange the plumbing and drainage inspection with NSW Fair Trading. Retain that paperwork — you will be asked for it.

Section 05Exhaust, ventilation and make-up air

Two standards govern kitchen exhaust and both are called up by the National Construction Code. AS 1668.1 covers fire and smoke control — how the duct is built, rated and routed. AS 1668.2 covers ventilation performance — how much air you must extract, how the hood is shaped, and where the air is allowed to go. The current edition is AS 1668.2:2024, which replaced the 2012 edition and introduced a treated-exhaust pathway that did not previously exist.

When you need a canopy at all

Under NCC 2025 (clause F6D12), a mechanical exhaust hood is required once any single appliance exceeds 8 kW electrical or 29 MJ/h gas input, or where combined cooking equipment exceeds 0.5 kW per square metre of kitchen floor area. In practice a single commercial oven, fryer or six-burner range crosses that line, so nearly every real kitchen needs a canopy. A coffee-only fitout with no cooking may not.

If you are running gas, the installation must comply with AS/NZS 5601.1 and be completed by a licensed gasfitter who issues a compliance certificate. Kitchen exhaust ductwork is generally required to be stainless steel, which is a cost worth knowing about before you compare quotes that may not have allowed for it.

Section 06Fire safety, accessibility and amenities

A café or restaurant is typically a Class 6 building under the NCC, and changing a tenancy's use can pull the whole space up to a current standard it did not previously have to meet. This is where "we're only doing a fitout" budgets come undone.

Accessibility

Under the Disability Discrimination Act and the NCC's access provisions, the path of travel from the street into and through your venue must be accessible, which reaches into entry thresholds, door widths, circulation between tables and counter heights. Depending on size and layout, an accessible sanitary facility may be required. Accessible design is not an optional refinement — it is a certification requirement, and retro-fitting it after the joinery is installed is painful.

Sanitary facilities

Toilet provision is set by the NCC against your occupant numbers, so your seat count directly drives how many pans and basins you must provide. Increase the covers late in design and you may trigger an extra fixture — and the floor area to house it.

Fire safety

Expect requirements around egress width and travel distance, exit signage and emergency lighting, portable extinguishers and fire blankets, and fire-rated construction where your exhaust duct passes through floors or fire compartments. Once occupied, buildings with essential fire safety measures require an Annual Fire Safety Statement — an ongoing obligation, not a one-off at handover.

Section 07The approvals nobody budgets for

Planning consent is not the finish line. These sit alongside it, run on their own timetables, and are routinely discovered late.

Section 08The correct sequence, and how long it takes

Most hospitality fitouts run eight to sixteen weeks from first consultation to opening. Where projects overrun, the cause is almost always sequencing — work started before an approval pathway was confirmed, or a utility application lodged after construction was already underway.

1. Feasibility, before the lease. Confirm zoning and approved use, locate existing services, check the exhaust route to roof and the grease arrestor position. Use the checklist in Section 10.
2. Concept design and fixture schedule. Layout, seat count, cooking line. This produces the numbers that size your arrestor, canopy and toilet provision.
3. Approval pathway decision. CDC or DA, decided on evidence rather than hope. Lodge trade waste and begin liquor licensing here if either applies.
4. Documentation and certification. Construction drawings, mechanical design, hydraulic design, accessibility and fire documentation for the certifier.
5. Lodgement and determination. Weeks for a CDC, months for a DA. Order long-lead equipment now — refrigeration and canopies do not arrive quickly.
6. Construction and off-site joinery. Trades on site while counters and banquettes are built in the workshop, which shortens the on-site phase considerably.
7. Inspections and sign-off. Plumbing and drainage inspection, mechanical commissioning, fire measures, environmental health inspection.
8. Occupation Certificate, then trade. Collect every subcontractor certificate as you go rather than chasing them in the final week.

Section 09Ten reasons applications get knocked back

1. The use is not permissible in the zone. No amount of design resolves this.
2. A single CDC standard is missed. There is no partial compliance — one breach sends the whole application to a DA.
3. No viable exhaust discharge. The duct cannot lawfully reach roof level, or the discharge point sits too close to a boundary, window or air intake.
4. Grease arrestor undersized or inaccessible. Sized for the concept rather than the final fixture schedule, or installed where no truck can service it.
5. Finishes that do not meet AS 4674. Timber, exposed brick or open grout specified into food handling areas because they looked right on the moodboard.
6. Hand basins missing, wrongly located, or without warm water. One of the most common environmental health failures, and one of the cheapest to avoid.
7. Accessibility not resolved. Entry threshold, circulation, or a required accessible sanitary facility omitted from the plan.
8. Occupant numbers inconsistent. The seat count on the plan does not match the toilet provision, exit widths or the acoustic assessment.
9. No waste management plan. Bin storage and collection access not shown, or physically impossible on the site.
10. Documentation incomplete. Missing mechanical schedules, hydraulic plans or specialist certificates. Unglamorous, and the most frequent cause of delay of all.

Section 10Pre-lease due diligence checklist

Print this and walk the tenancy with it before you sign anything. Every item below is cheaper to discover now than in week six of construction.