Acceptable wait time for email response to question from sma

I sent an email over a week ago to the shire technical officer regarding bushfire block clearing for a vacant adjacent block.

I'm just wondering how long I should wait before following it up? Very small local shire with under 500 residents. I'm told that the technical officer I'm in contact with has multiple roles on the planning team due to it being so small. The last time I contacted him he didn't respond for a week so I followed up, he apologised and was very responsive thereafter. That was for an easy to answer question though, the current question requires significantly more effort to respond to.

I only just bought the block and haven't submitted a development proposal. I don't want to gain a reputation for being annoying or impatient.

how imperative is the timing of the answer?