Innovation Case Study: MyLot
Yarra Ranges Shire Council
From Confusion to Clarity: Instant Planning Help with MyLot
Launched in March 2025, Yarra Ranges’ MyLot is an AI-powered digital planning portal that streamlines pre-application advice for residents, developers, and consultants. Featuring a Permit Checker and Submission Checklist, it improves application quality and reduces enquiry times. MyLot enhances planner productivity and empowers the community to make informed decisions, fostering a faster, more inclusive planning process.
2025 MAVlab Innovation Awards Finalist:
The Smooth Sailing Award for Service Optimisation and CX, supported by LANDATA® operated by SERV.
MyLot screenshot
Project statistics:
- Project team: Yarra Ranges Shire Council partnered with Siena (myLot and GovPartners). The council “brains trust” included a powerhouse planner, a can-do digital transformation CIO, and a small but mighty crew of four pioneering staff working day-to-day across planning, digital transformation, and IT. Siena provided technical expertise and development support, helping bring the vision to life. A highly collaborative approach combined council know-how and industry skills to deliver the project.
- Project timing: MyLot progressed from concept to fully operational AI-powered planning portal in 18 months.
- Discovery & Co-Design (Sep 2023–Jun 2024): Explored AI, engaged community and staff, and collaborated with tech experts to shape the solution.
- Development & Testing (Jul–Dec 2024): Agile delivery with weekly feedback loops, pilot trials, and a soft launch to stress-test the portal.
- Launch & Implementation (Jan 2025): Full public launch and transition into business-as-usual with continuous improvement.
- Success Factors: Rapid delivery enabled by strong governance, empowered leadership, and a shared commitment to transforming the planning experience.
Project goals:
- Provide fast, accurate, and accessible planning advice to customers
- Simplify complex planning processes via a conversational AI interface
- Improve application quality and reduce delays in approvals
- Allow planners to focus on complex, high-value tasks
- Ensure inclusivity through accessibility features and alternative service options
- Integrate with council systems to support digital transformation
- Mitigate risk through ethical AI use and robust assurance frameworks, and
- Support long-term strategic goals for smarter, customer-centric service delivery.
Challenge and context:
Planning in Victoria is often seen as complex, slow, and inaccessible. Community feedback revealed that customers found the process confusing, inconsistent, and overly technical, leading to poor-quality applications, delays, and disengagement. Initial enquiries could take up to an hour of planner time, and delays in receiving complete information often stalled development outcomes. Vulnerable cohorts, including people with disabilities and culturally diverse communities, faced additional barriers due to language, literacy, and digital access.
Yarra Ranges Council recognised the need for a transformative solution that would empower customers to navigate planning with confidence, reduce planner workload, and improve application quality. The challenge was to deliver this within a tight 12-month timeframe, with limited resources, and in a way that was inclusive, secure, and scalable.
The project team adopted a co-design approach, engaging customers, planners, and technical experts to understand the full planning journey. Rather than starting with a solution, the team listened, capturing insights from interviews, usability testing, pilot trials, and staff workshops. This ensured the final product addressed real frustrations and needs.
The result was MyLot, a generative AI-powered digital enquiry portal that replicates the planner-customer conversation online. Rather than simply streamlining a process, it empowers the community to leverage their own assets—land, ideas, and aspirations—with greater confidence and clarity. By making planning information accessible, digestible, and responsive, MyLot enables residents to take informed steps toward development, housing, and business opportunities. It is an enabler, accessible 24/7, and relevant to the aspirations of the customer and their own land opportunities.
This innovation directly addresses systemic challenges of red tape, resource constraints, and community disengagement, transforming the planning experience into one that is inclusive, efficient, and future-ready.
Solution and innovation:
To address the complexity, delays, and accessibility barriers in Victoria’s planning system, Yarra Ranges Council developed MyLot — a world-first generative AI planning portal. The solution was designed through a co-design approach, engaging planning customers, Council staff, and industry experts to ensure it met real needs and delivered meaningful outcomes.
Rather than starting with a pre-defined solution, the team began by listening. Interviews, usability testing, pilot trials, and workshops captured insights from diverse users, including those with disabilities, culturally diverse backgrounds, and limited digital literacy. This informed a service that is intuitive, inclusive, and empowering.
The portal replicates the planner-customer conversation online, allowing users to describe their project in plain language and receive tailored, accurate advice in minutes. It includes:
- Permit Checker: Determines if a planning permit is likely required
- Submission Checklist: Guides users through application requirements.
Innovative features include voice-to-text, translation, and plain-language interpretation, enabling users to engage in their own words. The AI engine is closed and rules-based, ensuring accuracy and compliance with planning legislation. The platform is also tech-agnostic, allowing easy adoption across councils regardless of their systems.
The project was delivered in just 12 months using agile methods, strong governance, and continuous feedback. Tools like Miro and Notion supported inclusive collaboration, while weekly stand-ups and stakeholder sessions ensured rapid iteration.
Unlike traditional planning services, which rely on static documents or linear rules engines, MyLot offers a dynamic, conversational experience that empowers the community to leverage their assets and participate confidently in the planning process. It sets a new benchmark for accessibility, efficiency, and innovation in local government.
Rather than starting with a pre-defined solution, the team began by listening.
Impact and outcomes:
MyLot has transformed the planning experience for the Yarra Ranges community. Since its launch in January 2025, it has significantly reduced enquiry times from up to 60 minutes to under 3 minutes, freeing planners to focus on complex assessments. Early data shows a marked improvement in application quality, with fewer Requests for Further Information (RFI) and faster progression to notification stages.
The portal empowers users to engage in plain language, with voice-to-text and translation features supporting culturally diverse communities, people with disabilities, and those with limited digital literacy. Accessibility audits and inclusive design principles (e.g., WCAG compliance) have ensured the service is usable by a broad cross-section of the community.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with customers reporting greater confidence, clarity, and satisfaction in navigating the planning process. Council staff have also noted improved consistency in advice, reduced administrative burden, and accurate record keeping of advice, enabling customers to be fully informed early in their design process.
The portal’s design enables continuous improvement, with weekly feedback loops and usage analytics informing future enhancements. Its platform-agnostic architecture and minimal data retention make it scalable and secure. Other councils, including Bayside, Mornington Peninsula, and Boroondara, have already adopted the solution, with several other Victorian and NSW councils on the journey to implementation.
Federal funding is now supporting expansion into subdivisions, multi-unit developments, and VicSmart applications, as well as internal expert plan-analysis tools for planners. The opportunity to integrate into the Building Permit process is underway. These next steps will increase impact, streamline processes, and improve outcomes for both Council and the community.
Ultimately MyLot is more than a digital tool; it’s a catalyst for enabling residents to leverage their land, ideas, and aspirations with confidence, contributing to a more accessible, efficient, and future-ready planning system.
Scalability:
MyLot was intentionally designed to be scalable and transferable across councils. Its platform-agnostic architecture allows integration with any council’s website and document management system, regardless of existing technology. With minimal data retention and secure API connections to publicly available planning data, the portal can be deployed in new locations within 8–10 weeks. Bayside, Mornington Peninsula, and Boroondara Councils have already adopted the platform, demonstrating its adaptability and value across diverse municipal contexts. There is potential for a Victorian-wide portal that benefits all councils, helping address the ongoing shortage of planners and enabling permits to be delivered more efficiently and with less confusion for customers.
Internally, the portal is being expanded to support planners with dynamic assessment and referral tools, further embedding its benefits across Council teams, as well as extending its use to enquiries for building permits. As its capabilities grow, MyLot will encompass more planning scheme sections and land-based data, increasing its utility and reach.
The project also supports knowledge sharing across the local government network. The co-design approach, governance framework, and implementation model are documented and available to other councils, enabling replication and adaptation. Weekly feedback loops and continuous improvement practices ensure the solution evolves with user needs and sector changes.
MyLot aligns with several UN Sustainable Development Goals, including:
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – modernising planning systems and enabling smarter infrastructure decisions
- Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities – empowering residents to engage in planning and development
- Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – promoting transparent, inclusive, and accessible service delivery
By reducing red tape, improving access, and enabling communities to leverage their assets, MyLot offers a scalable model for digital transformation that benefits councils, customers, and the broader planning ecosystem.
Learn more:
Try Mylot on the Yarra Ranges Council website:
- After pressing 'start now', you'll be asked to sign up.
- You'll then be asked to enter the address of your development proposal (*Use this Yarra Ranges address, which is vacant land owned by Council, as a test - 182 Cambridge Road, Kilsyth).
- After that, you'll be asked a series of questions about your proposal. Once enough information has been gathered about your proposal, the service will generate an analysis stating whether it's likely a planning permit is required.