Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Dec 16, 2014 11:02 am Hi Fellow H1s... We have an existing property in the Hills Shire council area. We are on a corner block and the existing fence facing the secondary street is 2.1m inside our actual boundary (confirmed on survey diagram). So, we would like to move this fence out to the boundary line to reclaim our land. The land drops away from the existing fence line, so we will need to build the land up with a retaining wall, then place a fence either above or right behind the wall. The wall will be 400mm high at lowest point and 1m max at highest point. I took my sketched plan to the council town planner to see if I can get this through as Complying Dev. He looked up the SEPP and said that I can under Section 3.29. However I later found that this section 3.29 is for earthworks and retaining walls for new builds only. ie. retaining walls that need to be put up because of cut and fill that takes place to level the lot. Looks like retaining walls for other than new builds need to either meet the Exempt criteria (which I don't meet as we want to put the wall and fence on the boundary) or be done as a DA through council. I really don't want to go through the paperwork of a DA if there is any way I can do this as a CDC. The Complying development Fact Sheet on the council website doesn't say anything about the criteria being solely for new builds, and other than that I meet all the criteria, so its a bit misleading. Waiting to hear back from the council duty surveyor on this. But if anyone can shed some light on whether this can be done as complying dev, I will be very grateful!! Re: Retaining Wall and fence on boundary - CDC or DA ? 2May 11, 2015 3:56 pm Having just built in the Hills Shire my understanding is that you can only do a retaining wall under CDC if it is <600mm tall and it has to be at least 600mm in from the boundary. That being said, I'm in almost the same position as your (albeit a new build) and my DA for a 900mm retaining wall with a fence above it was approved with no problems. I tacked it onto the DA for my pool so I didn't have to do any additional paperwork (technically I didn't do any paperwork, the pool guy did). Re: Retaining Wall and fence on boundary - CDC or DA ? 3May 16, 2015 8:17 pm I'm sure all councils are different, but in my past dealings on an existing built lot I was told it the wall was cut down to 1m max an application wouldn't need to be made. Re: Retaining Wall and fence on boundary - CDC or DA ? 4May 19, 2015 4:24 pm Matt1 Having just built in the Hills Shire my understanding is that you can only do a retaining wall under CDC if it is <600mm tall and it has to be at least 600mm in from the boundary. That being said, I'm in almost the same position as your (albeit a new build) and my DA for a 900mm retaining wall with a fence above it was approved with no problems. I tacked it onto the DA for my pool so I didn't have to do any additional paperwork (technically I didn't do any paperwork, the pool guy did). Thanks Matt1. Yep I attempted a CDC application just 2 weeks ago. But council suggested that I submit as a DA instead. They said application cost wise it was about the same and that it would not require engineering so I would not have to fork out for a structural engineer. Our wall is right on the boundary. So I submitted a DA on Fri 8th. It is at neighbour notification stage right now. It cost me about $750, that includes the CC and inspections. Can anyone recommend a good/affordable retaining wall and fence builder that I can get a quote from located in Sydney? 8 45841 Hello, We are about to build and the plans show a part of the exterior wall is being built on top of a limestone retaining wall. Does this mean the retaining wall will… 0 6965 4 11221 |