Hi guys, Quick question, I saw a corner block that was 599m2. If the zoning in the area was 600m2, how flexible would councils be? It is dependent on the council? Or is it just a definite no as if they said yes to mine, then they might have to accept a 590m2 from someone else - so it would be too hard for them to draw a line in the sand? I also thought about buying a m2 or two from a neighbour but all the blocks are rectangular (quite similar) and the one next to this one is 607m2, so if I bought a few m2, they would still have more than 600m2, but would the council accept you buying a little bit of their block? Cheers, Fitz
Depends on which council. Most of the ones I've dealt with have been fairly flexible. You could approach the neighbour about buying say a 0.5 to 1m margin of their property if they're not using anything which might put you over the line. Don't expect this to be cheap though.
What do you mean the "zoning in the area is 600m2"? Are you trying to subdivide or something? Because in WA there are such things like corner truncation and variation to average lot size rules.
Do you mean it's an R30 block and you want to achieve 2 x 300sqm blocks? Yes it would be possible on a corner block. You either use the corner truncation which can be up to around 16sqm or you apply to WAPC for some discretion on meeting the average 300sqm and that is allowed to be up to 5% discretion on either average or minimum for one block.
The house is liveable for probably another 15-20 years so it would be part of a long term plan. This place is in QLD though, so not sure if the corner truncation and variation applies - to be honest, I don't have a heap of knowledge in these areas but was thinking it could be a good x-factor to have in the back pocket. It's in QLD but would want to split it like that one day.
I'm not totally over corner truncation, but how does it work? You can't build on the very corners due to the safety issues but how do you get an extra 16sqm? Or you don't get the 16sqm (and can't build on it) and the council just assesses that it is included within the total size of the block?
Correct it's just assessed as part of the lot for mathematical purposes but not physical purposes. That is for WA though - I have no idea for QLD. @RPI might be able to assist
Didn't know that it only applies to one block or the average and not the entire block as most REA's make it out to be.
@Fitzy1903 just another note, how old is the DP. Is it in the old imperial measurements ? if so, then an area on the old DPs were often rounded down due to calculation redundancies, and generally shown to 4 significant figures. (NSW LPI regs anyway) we sometimes calculate a different area to what is shown on the old DPs. On DA Survey plans I often show By Deed and By Survey calculations. ask your surveyor to do a "close calculation' of the lot and see what area he/she calculates, or if you have a CAD program try it yourself. if it is a recent DP you may be out of luck with this option. anyway if you can plead the splay corner scenario then i would think you're going to be within limits.
BCC knocked back a 7m2 application recently, but we would have won on appeal. PM me the address and will have a quick look for you.
www.pdonline.brisbane.qld.gov.au has interactive mapping, property searches and history of development application searches. It tells me that the site is 599m2 of low density residential land
