Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 23, 2022 1:59 am Hi everyone - I am looking for suggestions and any advice on our situation. Sorry for the long post. Its been a frustrating year and a half since we initiated our Planning Permit application with the Council for subdivision and development and the saga still continues. We engaged a Town Planner for the Planning application however there are has been problems from the Council one after the other inspite of doing whatever we possibly could for a smooth application. Ours is a corner plot 870m2 with an existing house about 70-80 years old. We started the Planning process engaging a Town Planner with the intention of keeping the current house and building new townhouse to the side of the existing house. The design was submitted and Council Planner1 suggested changes that we incorporated into the plan. There were 4 objections raised by neighbours but this did not hinder the application as everything was in order (objections were against buidling double storey while street had mostly single storeys and about sunlight being blocked etc for which shadow diagrams were provided). By this time, Council Planner1 had moved and Council Planner2 took over the application. A notice of decision was issued but with a condition that payment of 5% total land value (60K - 70K) be paid for Public Open space contribution - this was completely unexpected and sounded unreasonable. Although we were planning for only 2 houses(existing house and new townhouse) on the block, Councils argument was that the block is large enough for 3 houses so there is a possibility that we would knockdown and subdivide in the future - hence the Contribution was required as a condition on the Permit. We did request that council's decision be reconsidered as we had no intention or the finance to further subdivide to build 3 houses, however Council did not agree. As a work around to paying 60K - 70K, we checked with Council if we could amend the Plan to include a knockdown and build of a single house and thereby not have to pay the Contribution - Council agreed to this as a knockdown rebuild was a guarantee to them that we woudn't be subdividing to 3 plots in the near future, however if were to build 3 houses in the future the Contribution payment would have to be made. Meanwhile the Planning Permit for the Townhouse was approved with the condition for payment and we decided to amend the plan to include the new home (single storey). To make sure that there were no more surprises from the Council, we were extra careful with the amendment and kept converstation open with Council, providing initial designs and what we were planning to do - to avoid costly changes later. The amended plan for subdivision and build of 2 houses was submitted to Council and Council Planner2 reviewed and suggested a minor change on the length of paling fence and rest was ok (confirmed in emails). The change was incorporated and application proceeded to Advertisement. Unfortunately Town Planner2 moved during this time and Town Planner3 took over application. Again there were the same objections plus an objection to the height of the paling fence and pergola location (this was ok'd by the Town Planner2 earlier). However now Town Planner3 has a problem with the location of the pergola and height of fence and want us to redeisgn. This will require significant changes to the Plan and a major redesign. So we are where we started. Even though we did our due diligence, and communications with council on the design, with changes made along the way as per Council Planner recommendations, we are now being asked to change the deisgn. How is this fair? We have requested for a meeting with Council to explain the history and hoping that a positive outcome can be achieved without a redesign. Has anyone had similar experience and any advise how best to present our case in the meeting? Many thanks for reading the long post and look forward to your reading you experience/advice/suggestions. Give Jonathan a call. Tell him you know me. He is in my opinion the best surveyor I have ever worked with. His number is 0425 285 622 All the best Simeon 3 12393 I am not based in Victoria however i had a quick look into your question to understand what you were asking. The way I read the regulations, overshadowing relates to the… 1 2233 "is it exempt or do I need to get permission from council" Call your Council and ask them 1 1559 |