Been a reader of Somersoft and now PC... the collective wisdom and experience in this forum is amazing ! Much appreciated if some advice can be given regarding below situation. I purchased our PPOR few years ago in Sydney. Detached house near major shopping centre that has 2 separate driveway access. We renovated the home and in the process the carport was also replaced and needed council building certificate in the process. Council approved the carport/awning and recognised the fact that the property uniquely had 2 driveways (from Council photos going back many years). It is one of only 2 houses on the street that has this, and one of the reasons we paid a premium to have this extra off street parking. At the time of carport approval though, the council surveyor said that he spoke with the engineering department and they said they would never approve the 2nd driveway if I was to try to upgrade it. The 2 driveways are pretty old and does not have proper concrete. Both have existing layback which are in reasonable condition. I want to upgrade both with a new concrete driveway as it looks out of place with the renovated house and also cars often block the 2nd driveway because it has grassed area and does not look as obvious (or that is their excuse - I have clear sign to request no parking on the driveway). My questions are: 1. If I apply for upgrade to both driveways, could the council only approve one and order me to close off the other? This would be unfair I think, because I am not asking for two new driveways but merely upgrading existing two. But I can see that there is demand for on street parking in the busy street and council may try to take away one of my driveways (which would also impact on the house price). 2. To be safe, I am thinking about only applying and upgrading the "main" driveway with proper concrete. And then just informally (i know this is technically illegal) update the second driveway (existing photo attached FYI). Basically, I just want to retain the existing layback but just get rid of the green lawn which masks the driveway. I am not a handy man at all - but I suspect no tradesman would want to touch this as it is council land. So I may have to do this on my own on a public holiday (when there is no council ranger around). Does anyone have experience with this and what if I just scraped off the lawn here and put some large flat paving style stones, or something like that? It would be just messing around with the lawn and soil - nothing involving concrete or asphalt. If council picked me up on this, then I could just remove the paving stones and return it back to the way it was? Thanks for your advice !
