Licensing & Planning Ballarat

Trusted Experts in Planning, Licensing & Development

Our approachable, experienced team helps you navigate complex planning, licensing, and design challenges with clarity, confidence, and care.

Supporting Smarter Projects Across Victoria

We help businesses, developers, and property owners make confident decisions through strategic planning, licensing, and design services tailored to real-world outcomes.

Meet the team

We’re a small, experienced team who work closely with you to navigate the complexities of planning, licensing and development — with practical advice and a down-to-earth approach.

James Robson

Director and Principal Consultant

Vipun Chanchlani

Coordinator – Design and Drafting

Tony Alex

Senior Town Planner

Andrea Logan

Liquor and Planning Consultant

Toby White

Town Planner

Hayley Closter

Office Manager

Our History

Built from Experience. Grown with Purpose.

OTL Consulting Group was founded in 2013 by James Robson, following his time as a compliance inspector with the Victorian liquor regulator. Initially launched as a liquor licensing consultancy, the business focused on helping hospitality operators navigate the complexities of liquor regulation and venue compliance.

As the client base expanded, so did the services. A natural next step was town planning support tailored to the needs of bars, pubs, restaurants, and licensed venues. This opened the door to broader planning work — from residential development and subdivisions to rural land use, strategic assessments, and built form design. Over time, drafting and urban design services were added in-house, allowing OTL to offer a genuinely integrated approach.

Today, OTL Consulting Group supports a diverse range of clients — from individual landowners and hospitality operators to developers and community organisations — with practical, strategic advice that gets results. Despite our growth, our values haven’t changed: we’re here to help, easy to work with, and committed to getting the job done properly.

Testimonials

We’re proud of the long-term relationships we’ve built and the results we’ve delivered. Here’s what some of our clients have said about working with OTL Consulting Group.

The Ocean Grove Golf Club have used OTL Consulting for many years when dealing with the LCV and, in particular, to arrange our much needed temporary summer licences for the Club. We recently asked them to finalise a permanent change to our licence and they have handled this application in a very professional manner. The key issue was timeliness and Andrea Logan, and the staff worked tirelessly to finalise a successful outcome for the club, even though they had very little time to complete these works. We are indebted to them as a company and especially Andrea who in this case pulled off the unexpected.

Russ Powell from Ocean Grove Golf Club

OTL Consulting have assisted us over a number of years with applications for new liquor licences and amending our current licenses. Their service has been invaluable is assisting us navigate what has become an increasingly complex application process as well as assisting us with ensuring we remain compliant with our licence conditions. We highly recommend using OTL if you require assistance with Liquor Licensing.

Ben from The Ryan Group

We had a fantastic experience working with Andrea from On Tap Consulting Group during our application for the liquor license at Hydrant Food Hall. Andrea was professional, approachable, and incredibly knowledgeable, guiding us through every step of the process with ease. Her communication was excellent, and she made what could have been a stressful experience feel simple and manageable. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend On Tap Consulting to anyone needing help with licensing. They really know their stuff and were a pleasure to work with.

Jerome from Hydrant Food Hall