I am considering for DA approval for Duplex. a) Is there a way (or anyone I can pay) to know if a DA approval ever been submitted before (and perhaps rejected) by previous owners? b) If worse comes to worse, has anyone stood a chance to win against Council in Land and Environmental Court?
You can go on the council's website and enter the address and see all the development applications for that address. You can see what has been submitted and the outcome of the DA submission. You can also contact the assessing officer and discuss the DA in more detail (if one has been submitted. Re the LEC - this is an option but very expensive. Which council does the development lie in and have you considered doing it under the upcoming medium density policy (CDC)?
Hi Alexan. Unless your land is shaped or sloped in a way that major DCP controls need to be thrown out the window, why would you be considering the LEC? Your designer should be working with yourself and council to design a duplex that complies with the controls and meeting your circumstances as much as possible. Regarding to CDC, I recently spoke with a few certifiers and council assessors and they reckon CDC for medium density could potentially be further postponed. I am already telling clients to just go through DA rather than to wait. The controls in the missing middle are not exactly easy to achieve and some could quite quickly become a deal breaker resulting in a DA path anyway.
