Dealing with Monash city council objections

Hi All,

I need some help and guidance.

Monash City Council is not in favour of our current plan. We have already been super conservative in our drawings and cannot really afford to lose any more space. I am definitely not open to the idea of giving up another bedroom to accommodate the garage.

To give you more context, its a 890 sq m block and I am looking to build 3 townhouses - 4br, 3 bath,

If you could please review and shed some light on what you think and if there are ways to get around this without losing any more land.

The key issues are –

1. The garage encroaching the rear setback only by 1 m or so.
2. Townhouse 3 overshadowing dwelling 2/ xx street

The rear setback restriction is 5m.

Attached : Townplanning drawings.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Can you please guide if so?

Do I stand a chance if I go to VCAT? Any townplanner reccomendations?

Appreciate your help.

 

Question 1 - are you sure you want to be developing right now?

Question 2 - what zone are you in?

I've PMd you details of a planner.

 

Also, monash council are looking to change the public open space contribution from 5% or less (three lotter is currently 2%), to 10%.

Monash Open Space Strategy

Make sure you factor this into your numbers, and whether you should go to vcat and risk the amendment coming into force in the meantime.

For example, if your site value is 1m, then your public open space contribution is currently 20k, but if the amendment comes through, then it will be 100k, is the win at vcat worth more than 80k to your design?

I suggest discussing with a planner the expected amendment timelines and work out the cost benefit of fighting councils requirements.

 

Thank you. Appreciate your help

 

Hi Lixas4,

I am aware of the 10% amendment that Monash is pushing for, but it is not enforced yet.

Also I am looking to hold long term all on one title and not looking to subdivide or sell for atleast 5 years.

This is a long term investment .

Regards,
Nataasha

 

Does the planning code require 2 parking spaces/dwelling? Lose one or more garages and take a small hit but provide an open parking space (tandem or stacker).

 

Its a requirement to have a double garage of 6m by 5m if you have 4 bedrooms.

 

Lose a bedroom (oh, it's a study/office/cinema /breakout room with joinery)

 

I hope you have factored in holding costs, interest, Land tax, etc. I think council may still issue 4 rates notices even without subdivision.

Will you need another planning permit when you eventually subdivide if your current one has expired? Will it comply? You might have already done your due diligence but if it was me I'd be having a good long chat with council, a property lawyer and a planner.

Think it would be the same for 3 or 4 bedroom.

 

Are the common walls between the garages and adjoining houses more than 270mm?

 

we can’t work out the issue with overshadowing without the top story floor-plan.

you can’t move the garage up from the rear setback without loosing some space. My suggestion would be to remove the bedroom and second bath from TH2 and make that space 1m narrower calling it a second living room. That way you can pull the whole TH3 forwards (towards the road) to meet code requirements.

 

Yeh the two car onsite rule is for a dwelling with 3 or more bedrooms.

A planning permit will be required when go to subdivide, it will include a requirement for public open space payment paid prior to the statement of compliance issue. Your subdivision plan will also be referred to all the service authorities who will need to consent. As @shorty said above, if you delay the subdivision there is a risk the service authorities requirements have changed, and you need to comply with their new guidelines. Theoretically, you 'may' be required to upgrade a service connection, although you also may not need to, noone can predict when an authority changes their rules.

Delaying the subdivision can add risk to your title re-establishment adoptions made by your surveyor in the original survey. Until the subdivision is submitted, your surveyors title adoptions are effectively their opinion on where your title is, but do not get fixed or published to other surveyors until the subdivision is submitted. Surveyors regularly disagree on the position of title boundaries. As you are building on your northern boundary, there is a risk that a future surveyor does a survey that disagrees with your current title boundary adoptions, and as the subdivision is delayed, they don't know about your survey and title adoptions. To minimise this risk, let your surveyor know that you are delaying the subdivision, and they will (should) put a re-establishment plan into the registry which will let all other surveyors know their title adoptions, meaning it will be a lot less likely for another surveyor to disagree with your surveyors title boundary. While the above issue doesnt happen often, when it does, it can cause massive issues as a building may have been built technically into someone elses property.

 

Seems like something I need to think about. If I have to subdivide now I am happy to do it.$20K open space contribution doesnt bother me too much. I was busy sorting my plans out. I will investigate as soon as I have a planner on board. Thanks @lixas4 and @shorty . Appreciate your help. If you think of anything else that I need to know about please let me know. Its my first development so I am quite nervous

 

Check with your designer if the planning application is for both the constructions of 3 townhouses AND the subdivision. Chances are its only for the former. You will need to have the subdivision permit application in before the public open space change occurs to get the current %.

 

You realise this is calculated on the end values, right? So 4 x say $400k land value lots = $1,600,000. 10% contribution (assuming it goes through) is $160k.

Even at the current (I think) 4% it's $64k. Don't know where you're getting $20k from. I think you need to do a LOT more research. I don't think you have done the numbers properly.

 

Difficult to assess without full drawings. But comments based on experience.
If you've lodged without a planner, and the drawings have been done by a drafter (what it seems), you will have been "persuaded" that you only need to comply with clause 55 (Rescode) standards - the "tick box approach". Not so. Quality and neighbourhood character come into play.
The design looks very conventional. Seems to me that there's little to merit departure from clause 55 standards, but this is what you are looking for. Would be useful to know the orientation (which way is north), look at overshadowing of secluded private open space. Design looks like it will be bulky/big - is that consistent with the street/locality? The forum won't be able to give good advice on the chance of success at VCAT - seek out an experienced (and registered) Town Planner - seek quality, not the cheapest opinion.
Based on my experience, and without seeing more details/having more info - maybe a 50/50 chance at VCAT - I can't see exceptional merit in the proposal

 

Looking at doing something similar in Monash. They changed the rules November last year to require a 5 meter setback instead of a 3 metres. Speaking to builders and draftees in the area they say you can build either on the boundary or 5 metres from it. You’ll have to go to VCAT though. Like others have said seek advice, if I was in your shoes I’d go for the fastest resolution since time is money. You could probably do a WC instead of a bathroom in TH2 and that would give you the space.

 

Thanks @Baza. Resolved that issue , managed to get a good town planner to help us negotiate but now there s a new issue.

 

If it can be used as a bedroom - it will be counted as a bedroom