Browse Forums General Discussion 1 May 15, 2008 4:20 pm Hey guys,
Following on from Snistr's post about PD not building on the boundary I have done some reasearching from my local council to see if our house would fit on the block we like. Ok so council sent me this reply, " Buildings can be placed on the side boundary or a minimum of 1 metre away. The higher the building the further from the boundary it must be. A wall on the boundary can be up to 3 metres high and the total length of walls on the boundary can be no more than 10 metres plus 25% of the remaining boundary. Things that may stop you being on the boundary are close habitable room windows next door or maybe an easement for example. If you choose to be 1 metre away from the boundary then the maximum height of the wall is 3.6 metres. You must always provide at least a 1 metre wide light court to any habitable room window near the side boundary. If you go two storey then you must be further away from the boundary. As far as front setbacks go - any of your building (garage or dwelling) must have a front front setback no less than the average setback of the buildings on the adjoining properties. You can apply to Council for a variation of the siting rules but a favorable outcome is not guaranteed" Ok so I have no idea how to work out what our setbacks are as I am not good at Maths and don't actually know the height of the Cremorne (hoping one of those building it will) But I know the land we are looking at is 15.24m wide and our house is 12.25m wide. What do you think are we in with a chance or back to our land search Thanks guys My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 2May 15, 2008 4:29 pm Sorry to hear that Bel,
Put it back onto PD, get them to look at the block measurements and what the council sent you and ask their opinion. Grrrrr, don't the council realise that you will be making their suburb a much prettier place!!!! Paula Re: Help me make sense of this please 4May 15, 2008 4:43 pm You need to take the floorplans & any other measurements to the Council & talk to somebody face-to-face, if you're serious about this block. This will ensure that you get the answer from the right body Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Help me make sense of this please 5May 15, 2008 4:46 pm Thanks Southies,
I don't have any floorplans - well only the ones that are on the PD website - but they don't mention the height of the house, as we have not signed up with PD yet so they won't give us anything until we do. Good idea though, I might just ask one of those building the Cremorne what the various measurement are and hopefully council will be able to give me some answers from them. Thanks for your input My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 6May 15, 2008 5:06 pm In Newcastle where we are the rules sound similar. As we are only building a single storey home the rules came down to basically - we could build pretty much on the boundary (although they prefer at least 300mm from the boundary) providing the wall on said boundary had no windows at all. If there was any windows in the wall then the house had to be sited at least 900mm from the boundary to allow for light to penetrate the building.
Setbacks from the front are basically the same - has to be pretty much on par with the existing homes in the immediate vicinity - although they are starting to crack down on people building massive garages at the front of the property - they prefer the garages set back - either in line with the home or preferably set back even further. Re: Help me make sense of this please 7May 15, 2008 5:31 pm Thanks Kyton
I have been reading and re-reading what the council wrote to try and make sense of it all and it seems that what they are saying is; I can build on the boundary providing there are no easements and provided the building on the boundary is no longer than 10m long by 3m high (this is ok as the garage is the only part of the building which will be on the boundary and it is only approx 7 m long and I doubt over 3 m in height - it also has no windows) So council should be fine , it is now PD that I have to deal with, if they refuse to build on the boundary then I am back at square 1. When I had my first meeting with PD I was told I could build on the boundary although they prefered not to. Waiting to hear back from PD about our new s/c who I can then bombard with questions. In the meantime it is just alot of waiting Thanks again bel My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 8May 15, 2008 5:35 pm The front boundary set back is as they said with a [approx] height limitation of 10 meters to ridge.
The side boundary setback is 1 met for a max. height from ground level to a point where the wall would penetrate the roofline of 3.6 met. If the height is more then the setback increases. Just saw your new post. Building on the boundary is as you said. Max. 3.6 with average of 3.0 meters . Anything within the 1 meter setback has to be fire rated i.e. windows on a return wall etc Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Help me make sense of this please 9May 15, 2008 8:15 pm Thanks Ausdesign,
PD have contacted me via email and given me the name of a s/c to ring and discuss the options with - will call tomorrow and keep you all updated. They did say in the email that they think the Cremorne would fit without being on the boundary, but I doubt that will work with council, as they said you have to either build on the boundary or at a minimum of 1 metre from the fenceline. We will only have .75m once we apply the 2m to the oppisette neighbours fence, therefore it is the boundary or nothing My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 10May 16, 2008 10:45 am Quote: It just seems like every block we come across has some sort of problem I completely understand, that is why it often easier to work on the location first and then get the house to suit. There are so many variables that could potentially change the style/design of your house eg north/south facing, sizing, width, neighbours setback, outlook, soil conditions, traffic noise etc etc IMHO I would think it is easier to get the block of land first- especially when you are talking about an established inner city area and then work on the house design. As you would know finding a block of land that is suitable for building a new house is not easy in established areas. I guess you do need to really think hard about what is more important to you - the location or the actual house. I know that is really really difficult to differentiate between the 2 but you may have to do that. If it is location that is most important to you than you can go looking for a block of land without a very rigid house plan dictating what block you can consider. If it the house design that it is most important then location needs to be put down the criteria list and maybe consider a new estate further out. Sorry that may be harsh but that is the experience we had. We had to radically change our house plan to suit the conditions of the block we bought. For us the location was paramount and so the design of the house had to take second place. Re: Help me make sense of this please 11May 16, 2008 11:02 am Thanks for your advice Kerrie - you are completly right
In hindsight I wish I had of just picked a block of land and then looked at house designs to suit - but unfortunatly it didn't happen that way. We have our hearts set on the Cremorne - it is the perfect house for us, I have also looked at a number of other project home builders with the same requirements (double story, 4+ bedrooms, rumpus, seperate study) and they all seem to be the same measurements meaning we would be having the same problems anyway. The location to me is not that important - but to DH it is. I would be more than happy to move to Sanctuary Lakes - but for DH's work he is already 1 hr+ away and he doesn't want to move any further out. I think this block we have will be ok, assuming PD will build on the boundary (which I know they do = so don't know why they are changing their minds now??) if not, we will just have to keep searching We have had a pretty rough trot at the moment with family health and other unfortunates and I really believe we deserve some good luck, so I am willing to hang in that bit longer, but if nothing happens well then I think you are right and we may need to rethink our options Thanks again My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 12May 16, 2008 1:58 pm Spoke to a rep from PD who informed they will build on the boundary but prefer not too
He also mentioned that he thinks that we could just have a 1m setback to the boundary (on the garage side) and therfore a 1.72m boundary to the oppisette side neighbouring fence. This sounds like a good idea, however, if the council said if we are deciding to build a 2 story home the length to the boundary has to be further, then I am not sure 1.72m would cut it?? Once I get the paperwork from the real estate, PD suggested I bring it in to them and they can site the land on their computer program and I can then show it to council. Does anyone happen to know what the average side setback for a double story home is? I'm aware it will probably vary between councils, but I'm hoping there may be a common number. My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 13May 16, 2008 2:51 pm Hi there ..
Quote: Does anyone happen to know what the average side setback for a double story home is? I'm aware it will probably vary between councils, but I'm hoping there may be a common number. It depends on the height of the wall on that side ... for a typical double storey house it's 1.6-1.8m Check under building regulation 414 in this document http://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/library ... title=Fact Re: Help me make sense of this please 15May 16, 2008 3:44 pm Found some similar discussion in HOMEONE and think it may be good to share here
https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... d+boundary https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... d+boundary https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... d+boundary look like we have the right to build on the boundary (jn VIC), but there could be potential issue to be aware of... Blog - http://clageonewhouse.blogspot.com/ Building Thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10886&hilit=milan I am in, with my husband and my beautiful bunny Re: Help me make sense of this please 16May 16, 2008 5:37 pm Is it an option to amend the plans of the house by the necessary millimeters?? It sounds like you might just need to bring it in a little, and perhaps make the 'entry' and other walk through areas smaller by the 300mm's.
I'm not too familiar with PD as I'm in Sydney, but we've been able to make substancial structural changes to our original design with our Project Builder. Try to actually speak to the planning people in PD as I'm sure they would have had this issue before if its common in VIC. Fortuantly we did have our land first (6yrs before we started planning all this) and have very strict council requirements. My DH had a couple of pre-lodgement meetings with council to go through 'everything' and get their recommendations prior to us actually lodging a building application. We are building in a very old established area in Sydney, although there is currently many new homes going up. Good luck Re: Help me make sense of this please 17May 16, 2008 7:47 pm Hi Bel,
Interesting topic you posted seeing as I've spent half a day today on the phone with our Estate Developers (Stockland) and PD in regards to our Cremorne............ Our setback on the garage side can be 1m if we have no habitable window so the garage is okay to have close to but not on the boundary in our case. On the other boundary side we have to have a setback of 2.5m and the games room and bedroom 4 windows have to have obscure glass. But.... there's always a but! If we moved the house over another 1.5m the windows don't need to be obscure. This is apparently Whittlesea Council's regulations and not PD's. Make sure PD know the council's rule beforehand. As those of you who are building or have built with PD, you'll know that they won't let clients makes structural changes after contract appt. We had unfortunately increased the window in bedrooms 2 and 4 to be the same size as bedroom 3 and the thought of having that in obscured glass got me rather upset (to say the least). We don't really want to move the house over another 1.5m as that will eat into the future pool space so I've put it back on PD that they should have known we would need the obscure glass and advised me before I increased the window size. Therefore they have allowed us to change the window back to the standard (short and wide) size and raise it 1.7m from the floor so it doesn't need to be obscured. The games room will have to be, but I can live with that....... just. Sorry, realised I'm probably talking more about glass finishes than boundary setbacks but going from my experience today it all comes down to council regulations. PD should comply with you if council allows it. Toni Re: Help me make sense of this please 18May 16, 2008 8:23 pm Thanks for your input everyone
Toni - No what you mentioned about the windows is very important, thank-you for the heads up, it should help alot with our build. Out of interest for all you Cremorne builders- do you know the height of the entire home? Is it on plans etc? I'd love to know as I just got this response from the council and it will help me to work out exactly what the side setback needs to be... "The formula for side setback is 1m for a height of 3.6m then an extra 0.3m for every 1 metre increase in height above 3.6 metres. Example: Setback of 1m for 3.6m height, 1.3m setback for 4.6m height, 1.6m for 5.6m height, 1.9m for 6.6m height - interpolation between these heights is permitted" My karma ran over your dogma Re: Help me make sense of this please 19May 16, 2008 9:01 pm haywgl Thanks for your input everyone Toni - No what you mentioned about the windows is very important, thank-you for the heads up, it should help alot with our build. Out of interest for all you Cremorne builders- do you know the height of the entire home? Is it on plans etc? I'd love to know as I just got this response from the council and it will help me to work out exactly what the side setback needs to be... "The formula for side setback is 1m for a height of 3.6m then an extra 0.3m for every 1 metre increase in height above 3.6 metres. Example: Setback of 1m for 3.6m height, 1.3m setback for 4.6m height, 1.6m for 5.6m height, 1.9m for 6.6m height - interpolation between these heights is permitted" Hi My plan only show the overall WALL height and it is 5625. It does not show the height that include the roof . I guess the roof height is depending on the roof pitch etc ? HTH Cheers Re: Help me make sense of this please 20May 16, 2008 9:15 pm Sorry Bel, I only have the external wall height which is the same as the post above. I don't think you need to take into account the roof. Just the wall height from ground to gutter. if i have understood your dimensions correctly my suggestions include using the smallest toilet and wall hung handbasin eg Caroma Urbane with in wall cistern, small wall… 1 8156 Not sure who you're building with, but I moved in recently to a 11month scheduled, 8 month actual build on the South coast/Illawarra NSW 3 5908 I posted the floorplan on Houzz.com forum and got some really good ideas and advice from people there. Then we reached out to a couple of renovation companies and one… 5 10083 |