Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Sep 02, 2018 10:40 pm Hi all, Just wondering if anyone had experience with building under a vegetation protection overlay that required removal of some vegetation. My partner and I have just purchased a bush block (about 40 acres of bush land) and it is zoned as rural conservation, has a vegetation protection overlay and is under a bush-fire management overlay. Now we are fully aware that we will need to jump through a lot of hoops to build on this property but I really want to know what we're in for. Where we want to build is within 50m of existing houses, has sewage and power close by, it already has an area that has been cleared however not quite enough to build without taking down a few trees, especially considering it will most likely be BAL40 or FZ and we will need a 10m defendable space around the home. There are many 1000m2 blocks in the area that have been cleared to a larger extent than what we want to do and I'm wondering how they achieved this. This is a long term project, I just want to know what we're getting ourselves in for red tape wise. In case people are wondering we want to remove the absolute minimum possible to build a house, the remaining 39 1/2 acres will be left untouched. Re: Vegetation protection overlay and building 2Dec 28, 2021 3:09 pm Hi there, We are considering purchasing a similar block with essentially the same zoning and vegetation protection overlay. Just wondering how the process has gone for you? Any feedback/ advice you might have would be hugely appreciated. Thanks! Re: Vegetation protection overlay and building 3Dec 28, 2021 10:48 pm Hi Ims We actually sold the block this year, it was a combination of several factors that lead to that decision. The red tape and unknowns that I'll go into combined with the huge increases to building costs this year all while property prices increased substantially. The temptation to sell and make quite a nice profit instead of ending up in much more debt that we originally budgeted for was too much to pass up on. I don't want to put you off but just inform you what we learned along the way. Now one thing that may affect your ability to purchase the block (as we had a buyer pull out for this reason) is the major banks consider the block has zero value unless you have a planning permit. This was also a contributing factor in our decision to sell as we couldn't get an accurate figure on how much we could borrow unless we obtained a planning permit. Now if you haven't already I would ring the council and ask them to tell you what they can about the block, and particularly ask them if any planning permits have ever been issued or rejected. Now I'll just say we are in Victoria, so other states might differ. To apply for a planning permit you're going to need a set of plans drawn up, a bush fire management statement,BAL rating and you're going to want this done by a bushfire management consultant. You are also going to need an environmental consultant who will submit a report on the environmental impact of your proposed build which among other things will determine the biodiversity offsets you must purchase (based on vegetation removal), you then must provide a quote from an authorized biodiversity offsets seller to prove that your offsets are able to be obtained. The difficult thing with land zoned this way is the competing interests of the 2 overlays. The rural conversation with the vegetation protection overlay is intended to conserve the vegetation by reducing the removal of vegetation to the bare minimum required (or none at all). But the bushfire management overlay is about preserving and protecting property and lifes which entails removing vegetation around the building providing a clear buffer between vegetation and the building. What this means is you really need the location you want to build to be both the best location from a bushfire protection point of view and an environmental impact point of view. Our building envelope was determined to be BAL40, this meant we needed to provide a 19m defendable space around the perimeter of the home, it doesn't mean every tree inside that space needs to be removed but most do eg canopy's can't be within 5m of each other. So we needed to be 19m in from the boundary to the face of the house as neighbors property's are not considered to be part of the 19m. This meant we would have needed to clear an area about 50m x 65m which is a massive area. But where this really hurts is you must purchase the biodiversity offsets for that large clearing. We never got as far as getting quotes for these offsets however based on recently sold prices https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/__da ... ember.xlsx we were looking at between 20k to 70k. The environmental side really is tricky, the vegetation is classed by significance and put into 1 of 3 ratings (if I recall), if you are 1 of the higher ratings then it triggers a lot more paperwork and may impact your ability to obtain a permit. As well as the biodiversity offsets the land you need to clear may be deemed to be land that is habitat to endangered flora and fauna and then you require ecological offsets on top of the biodiversity offsets. Something else that worried us was our planning consultant mentioned that our neighbors would receive our planning permit application and it would be made public on the council website, he pointed out that some green groups may not be happy with us removing that much vegetation and as such may make a submission opposing our plan to council which council may agree with and all of a sudden we need to go down the legal avenue to try and overcome it (more time, stress and $$$). If you go ahead with the purchase then I'd recommend you hire a planning consultant (even better if they are also your bush fire consultant), bush fire consultant, environmental consultant (prob who the planning consultant recommends) and an architect or draftsman. When you do this arrange a site meeting that all parties attend, it's really important they are collaborating early on, it saves time, confusion and money. I hope this helps, again I don't want to put you off but just provide you information I wish we had known going into the purchase. Yes, neither is termite damage that is not covered by your house insurance. 3 6724 You should be able to encase the sewer but you will need it designed and approved and access to lot 580 to do the work 2 17539 I want to build a decking to the drawn shape outlined in black. The problem is how close can I build to the gas hot water unit? Will I be able to build around it and be… 0 20506 |