Glimmers of hope
As I mentioned before, Michael and I aren't fans of doom and gloom so we've been ploughing on with finding out if the obstacles facing us with regard to developing a house on Lot 31 North Boambee Road are insurmountable or not, and there seems to be some hope that it might all work after all.
Our vendors had a meeting with a senior planning officer at the Council on Tuesday or Wednesday. They went in demanding to know why, when they had a letter from the Council dated 2001 which states that they do have permission to build a house within the 7A zone we had been told building was impossible on the site except in the far southern part of the block, and were told that the information given to us by that same office was rubbish. In fact, the senior planning officer apparently stood up in the office and asked the person guilty of telling us that to stand up and make themselves known, but I gather no-one volunteered! While nothing came out in writing at that meeting (surprise, surprise), at least there's been a change in heart and it has been suggested that we should have a meeting with the same senior planning officer next week to try and thrash out some of the issues.
That doesn't mean that we're pushing ahead with the purchase because when I speak to the agent tomorrow I am going to say that we will only buy the property contingent on a good result from soil testing and establishment of a continuing Right of Carriageway to the access point of the property. Plus, although we can apparently build in the 7A zone, thus removing the need to re-zone the site at State Government level, we nonetheless have to comply with a whole raft of legislation in terms of building design and situation which we need to understand fully before we go ahead. For example, there is some talk that we would have to have fire-proof screens on all of the windows at the back of the property and that all windows might have to be double-glazed (as you can imagine, in this warm climate double-glazing isn't standard and in fact is extremely expensive!). We already know about some other restrictions such as sealed guttering and enclosed post and beam construction on a slope, but we do need to understand the Fire Regulations properly.
Another issue we need to talk about to the Council is that as part of the 7A zone seems to have been illegally cleared of Priority #1 Koala habitat vegetation, we want to know whether that places an obligation on us to re-plant the destroyed habitat... While I'm a fan of encouraging native trees and flowers I don't particularly want to have to re-plant an acre of forest! But anyway, at least it isn't all negative. We'll just have to see what turns out.
One thing we have done is to identify the architect we might use. His name's Christian Fisher and his website is www.fisherdesign.com.au, if you're interested. He's in his 30's I'd say and has been in the area for a few years although he spent some time in Sydney working for various architectural practices. He likes the property and seems to have some well-thought ideas about it, but he also recognises that he has to compete with local building designers and so his fee structure is very realistic. As so many people build houses over here building design is big business and canny builders have realised that if they equip themselves with some design skills and an in-house draftsman/woman then they can compete with architects. On the one hand it does mean that 'designed' houses are available to almost everyone, but on the other hand some times the designed element seems a bit clumsy. Instead of charging a whopping 10%+ of the total build cost in architects' fees Christian has a staged fee proposal that gives him a lump sum rather than a percentage amount and cover the whole design/consultation process, getting it through the Council planning process, producing the full working drawings plus 3D simulations, and the tendering process. Once a builder's been selected Christian can also come in and trouble shoot on an hourly rate. We'll give him an update this week, but he's certainly the best person we've come across so far, and we really like his existing work.
Our vendors had a meeting with a senior planning officer at the Council on Tuesday or Wednesday. They went in demanding to know why, when they had a letter from the Council dated 2001 which states that they do have permission to build a house within the 7A zone we had been told building was impossible on the site except in the far southern part of the block, and were told that the information given to us by that same office was rubbish. In fact, the senior planning officer apparently stood up in the office and asked the person guilty of telling us that to stand up and make themselves known, but I gather no-one volunteered! While nothing came out in writing at that meeting (surprise, surprise), at least there's been a change in heart and it has been suggested that we should have a meeting with the same senior planning officer next week to try and thrash out some of the issues.
That doesn't mean that we're pushing ahead with the purchase because when I speak to the agent tomorrow I am going to say that we will only buy the property contingent on a good result from soil testing and establishment of a continuing Right of Carriageway to the access point of the property. Plus, although we can apparently build in the 7A zone, thus removing the need to re-zone the site at State Government level, we nonetheless have to comply with a whole raft of legislation in terms of building design and situation which we need to understand fully before we go ahead. For example, there is some talk that we would have to have fire-proof screens on all of the windows at the back of the property and that all windows might have to be double-glazed (as you can imagine, in this warm climate double-glazing isn't standard and in fact is extremely expensive!). We already know about some other restrictions such as sealed guttering and enclosed post and beam construction on a slope, but we do need to understand the Fire Regulations properly.
Another issue we need to talk about to the Council is that as part of the 7A zone seems to have been illegally cleared of Priority #1 Koala habitat vegetation, we want to know whether that places an obligation on us to re-plant the destroyed habitat... While I'm a fan of encouraging native trees and flowers I don't particularly want to have to re-plant an acre of forest! But anyway, at least it isn't all negative. We'll just have to see what turns out.
One thing we have done is to identify the architect we might use. His name's Christian Fisher and his website is www.fisherdesign.com.au, if you're interested. He's in his 30's I'd say and has been in the area for a few years although he spent some time in Sydney working for various architectural practices. He likes the property and seems to have some well-thought ideas about it, but he also recognises that he has to compete with local building designers and so his fee structure is very realistic. As so many people build houses over here building design is big business and canny builders have realised that if they equip themselves with some design skills and an in-house draftsman/woman then they can compete with architects. On the one hand it does mean that 'designed' houses are available to almost everyone, but on the other hand some times the designed element seems a bit clumsy. Instead of charging a whopping 10%+ of the total build cost in architects' fees Christian has a staged fee proposal that gives him a lump sum rather than a percentage amount and cover the whole design/consultation process, getting it through the Council planning process, producing the full working drawings plus 3D simulations, and the tendering process. Once a builder's been selected Christian can also come in and trouble shoot on an hourly rate. We'll give him an update this week, but he's certainly the best person we've come across so far, and we really like his existing work.
posted by Sara Bowen at 10:02 pm
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