Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 05, 2009 11:50 am Hi, Just wondering if anyone had any stories to share about any issues they may have had when building or developing with regards to significant trees. There was a story on ACA last week, and I am going through a similar issue, so I am wondering how common it is. In particular I am curious to know how often councils will approve removal of a healthy significant tree for development purposes - if there are no alternatives of course. Contributions welcome from states other than SA as well... Thanks Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 3Oct 05, 2009 2:08 pm i i saw a similar story some time ago. A family wanted to chop down a tree because they believed it was going to fall on there house sometime. The council flately refused because it was a healthy tree. Eventually they made it public on one of those aca shows and then the decission was overturned..... i know i havent helped but maybe you should talk your story there if all else fails. building heysen4e through SarahHomes at Milang IM THE PROUD OWNER OF DIRT house into council 22/08 Unconditionally approved 25/09 mortgage docs signed 29/09 land settled 09/10 land titled 22/10 start date about two weeks away!!! http://www.mymilangbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 4Oct 05, 2009 3:16 pm thanks for your responses... the brief version of the ACA story is a man purchased a block of land with the intention of building a house and granny flat on it. Before he purchased it he discussed his intentions with the council and they agreed it should be fine. After purchasing it he realised there were 4 significant trees on it (trees with trunk circumference of more than 2m). He applied to the council to have the trees removed so he could build his house and granny flat - 3 were approved because they were dying and had termites, one was not approved for removal as it was healthy. The one he is not able to move is right where he wants to build. My issue is similar except different. I am attempting to subdivide my property - council approved the subdivision so based on their conditions I removed a 12m x 6m x 3m shed, and to prepare it for building I had earthworks to remove retaining walls, cement paths etc. SA water have come out to do their bit and have said they have to add a sewer extention out to the road and there is a significant tree in the way. Have had an arborist come out and they have written their report - tree is healthy but not indigenous to the area, however the guy at the council has suggested I speak to SA water about alternatives to removing the tree (my translation of the conversation is he was hinting that they wont allow removal). Have spoken to SA Water they have told me there are no alternatives. I am quietly having a panic attack that I have spent $20k on nothing, not to mention devaluing our house with the removal of our lovely big garage and the demolition of our landscaping! We are not wealthy people by any stretch of the imagination, the $20k was a drawdown on our mortgage and I guess I am just looking for some hope. I have done all the research into my councils development plan regarding significant trees, and my interpretation of it is that if the tree is not a danger to anyone or at risk of damaging property or dying, then they wont allow removal. The thought of going on tv is not an appealing one for me im afraid - but desperate times call for desperate measures. Once I have applied and (if) they dont allow for removal of the tree, I might get over my shyness! Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 5Oct 05, 2009 3:54 pm If you run out of options, what's the cost of cutting down the tree regardless and getting fined? This is a last resort of course - it's much better if you stay on the council's good side! I'm a bit surprised there are no alternatives with the water. I guess this is one of the problems with a monopoly, they don't have an incentive to innovate. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 6Oct 05, 2009 4:26 pm We have a significant tree on our block. We put in a submission to neaten some really straggly, badly cut (like many years ago) and general neaten before we started our house as there was good access..no chance of hurting any property. Request was rejected. Not allowed to touch any branch..no matter how small without an extensive arbourist report + another submission thay may also be rejected. On the good side they did allow us to remove a bunch of dying pine trees. Win some, lose some. Built Liberty 42 - Handover 26th Feb 2010 forum thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17243 Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 7Oct 05, 2009 7:01 pm I don't advocate cutting down trees unnecessarily, but if it needs to go, it needs to go. I remember a few years ago, a beachside strip that was developed and the council planted some trees or rejected the residents cutting down some trees as they were blocking their expensive views. The residents took matters into their own hands and the trees started dying. The council replaced them and they died again. I'm not suggesting anything here of course. Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 8Oct 05, 2009 8:05 pm we live near Brisbane and needed to put in electricity. We had to apply to cut trees down which were approved after a report but we are now having expensive issues with the council not approving how low we cut the trees which now requires stump grinding etc. My advice is to see your local member. All of the issues we have had subdividing have mostly been settled by seeing our councillor of our local area. She agreed that some things were rediculous and fought on our behalf. No luck there talk to the mayor. We did this and were able to just widen our road instead of bitumining it which saved us thousands and in the begining the council did not approve our subdivision so we saw our councillor and they changed their mind/ Also if you speak with the mayor they probably won't like the publicity of ACA visiting so might be worth mentioning that you have been thinking about it. Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 9Oct 05, 2009 10:00 pm Hi Lee, can i please ask you what council your in? We are in the Mallala council and have just gone through a subdivision (my fella's dad gave me 1/2 of his 5 acres(he's a darling!)). My surveyor had 2 proposals for the middle fence line- 1: staggered fence so we wouldnt have to remove a shed and a stable but would then have to remove 20+ gum trees or 2: straight down the guts so then we wouldn't have to remove the trees but would then have to pull down the shed & stable. The council went for the 2nd proposal as in my case it would be easier to pull out the shed&stable rather than the gums.They also didnt give me a time limit to put the fence up as it is still family that owns the 2 properties This probably doesnt help you any though. I would probably go with btherl and cop a fine (doing your homework on the severity of the fines tho) or some how will the tree to die-the power of the mind can do amazing things!! Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 10Oct 05, 2009 10:58 pm We have a big gum tree opposite of where we are currently living and over the last few years it has dropped a couple of really big branches (and a few small ones). One of them fell on a car, the other took out one of the power lines. I spoke to one of the electricity company repairmen when they visited and he said they call the type of gum tree that it is man killers as they drop branches without warning (the last one dropped on a windless day with no warning - I was looking out the window while it happened). The owners of the land that it is on haven't had any success in convincing the council to allow them to remove it - probably won't unless someone gets seriously injured or killed. Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 11Oct 05, 2009 11:08 pm We had a significant gum tree in our last place. It was right in the back corner so about 15 metres away from the house and not a problem to build. It didn't even occur to us to have it cut down. When we sold it was one of the major blockers for a lot of people to buy the house. They just didn't want the responsibility of having a gum tree on their property. I kept thinking about burkes backyard song 'give me a home among the gum trees...' should be re-recorded to 'give me a home without the gum trees...' Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 12Oct 05, 2009 11:17 pm digamma I don't advocate cutting down trees unnecessarily, but if it needs to go, it needs to go. I remember a few years ago, a beachside strip that was developed and the council planted some trees or rejected the residents cutting down some trees as they were blocking their expensive views. The residents took matters into their own hands and the trees started dying. The council replaced them and they died again. I'm not suggesting anything here of course. Hello there! Somebody told me that in one of the suburbs of Sydney, the council actually contract a helicopter to go up on a regular basis and take aerial shots of the council jurisdiction, then compares the photos with previous photos to see who's been chopping down trees without approval. Apparently the fines that they receive from prosecuting the guilty parties makes it all worth sending up the helicopter in the first place. . . also, I'm sure we've all seen on the TV about the rich people with water views poisoning trees which obscure their views and getting caught. We had a tree felled in order to build our house. It was in the building envelope, so the council didn't bat an eyelid. Lucky we did, it was infested with termites! Aaargh! Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 14Oct 06, 2009 4:44 pm Thanks everyone for your suggestions.. I am in the Onkaparinga council. The fines can be up to $30k for removing them without permission. I am stupid really because I like to do the right thing, and I know I am going to regret being like that if it comes round to bite me in the end (as it well might).. I spoke to SA Water again, there definitely are no alternatives to where they want to do the extention, so now I am convinced I have just done up an application for the council to remove the tree and I will see how we go (added into my letter that i would be willing to plant native mature trees so who knows, that may help - thanks for the suggestion). I guess my frustration is that the council has approved the subdivision but may not be negotiable with regards to this stupid tree. I see ridiculous development going on all over adelaide and all i want to do is subdivide my land and I may not be able to because of a stupid tree. I can't even comprehend it. I will be beyond devastated I can tell you that. Anyway, thanks for all of your assistance, please keep your fingers crossed for me and I will come back with an update when I have one! Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 16Oct 08, 2009 8:58 pm I have also heard the fines can be around $30k, a friend of a friend wanted to remove a tree and just did it and took the risk of the massive fine it didn't happen but they had the money if they got caught. We had a very dangerous tree in our old house it dropped branches all the time had huge exposed roots and was only 2 mtrs from our front door, we applied to the council to have it removed because of the danger and the fact it was doing major damage to our house, we had the approval in a couple of weeks, just so happens we have now demolished that house and are building a new one. Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 17Oct 08, 2009 11:39 pm Forgive me for saying but since when does council have any authority to say yes or no to tree removal. Fair enough if it was a verge tree but if it's on your property, rip the chainsaw out and go to town. I'm sure here in Perth no council would be stupid enough to try and stop you and I work for a local city council. Building with CELEBRATION HOMES @ THE GLADES in BYFORD W.A. My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19512&p=249550#p249550 Re: Issues with significant trees & councils - SA 18Oct 09, 2009 4:41 am i think its a pretty well across the board. you'll likely find they'll have something similar. building heysen4e through SarahHomes at Milang IM THE PROUD OWNER OF DIRT house into council 22/08 Unconditionally approved 25/09 mortgage docs signed 29/09 land settled 09/10 land titled 22/10 start date about two weeks away!!! http://www.mymilangbuild.blogspot.com/ Just to makea point about this, an approach that some people have found sucessful in negotiating these rises down, Is to provide some workings to the builder, specifying… 4 81888 I recently hit a snag with my new build with Metricon. On the block I purchased there is an old covenant when the land was subdivided in 1971 that "the exterior walls of… 0 2130 A survey must’ve completed by a certified surveyor. This form part of every DA requirement 3 225024 |