North Perth WA: 5 'apartments'

My first project was very uncreative but I was very hands on and I think the OCD/control freak part of me wanted to know 'why' everything was the way it was, so I learnt and learnt and learnt which has helped push everything I can do the boundary. The more you know the more loopholes and creative 'deemed to comply' justifications.
Working outside the norm has it's risks and that revolves around getting other people to see my vision and agree with it. This doesn't always go my way. The upside is the higher risk comes higher reward so it's compensated ok.

For this project I knew what type of project I wanted in my head. I knew I wanted to take advantage of a loophole and I really wanted to build something like terrace houses with it. That meant finding a corner block in an innercity suburb where smaller dwellings would be appreciated.
This block had been on the market for awhile and the location was good. I did up a concept design which actually had 6 units on it but then when we found the 3m deep easement and basically lost 120sqm of land it went down to 5 units. The sums still worked at 5 and I got a $70k discount for the easement.
Then I took my concept drawing to my builder's designer who is now used to my control freak nature and can interpret it into something way better than my drawing and more like what was in my head

 

Sounds stressful, fun and rewarding!

How many years and how many projects did it take you to get where you are now, @Westminster? Were you in a 9-5 job that is related to ip and development?

 

Hmmm tough question with many answers. Back in the 90s I spent a year as a New Homes Consultant sitting in a display home selling houses which I loved but didn't like the tactics employed by the FHOB company I worked for. I left and went into IT for the next 20yrs where I learnt to RTFM, analyse, problem solve, manage myself and other people, and think spatially. I built my first IP in '98 and bought my first development site in 2007 which was completed in 2012. I was totally hooked then and the rest has been recorded on SS and here.

I love doing it, I love sharing it (hopefully someone likes to read about it) and I love helping other people do it too.

 

I went to Design Advisory Committee tonight at City of Vincent to review the changes we'd made to the design. All positive comments about the changes and now we are left with 2 issues:
1. They want the visitors bay moved as they don't want it in front of the building (which I thought was were they usually went?!?!?_
2. We need to find alternative soft landscaping as they won't let us use the landscaping in the road widening reservation (sigh)

Both will be overcome. We will look at rejigging again to fit visitors bay in somewhere and may change the driveway to be trafficable grass - not the grasscrete stuff but this stuff



And if you'd like to see the design as it was today you can see it here

Valuations by a local and trusted REA came in today:

UNIT 1 2X2X1 $595 - $625,000
UNIT2 1X1X1 $485,000 - $525,000
UNIT3 2X2X2 $625,000 - $650,000
UNIT4 2X2X2 $625,000 - $650,000
UNIT5 2X2X2 $625,000 - $650,000​

 

Looks fantastic! Did the build cost come out around the 1.3mil mark as estimated?

 

probably not.

 

Hi Myf. DAC hate front setbacks with car parking but R Codes demand it.

That grass core stuff still end up with the grass dying in summer and then the cores get damaged.

Sorry they're giving you the sheets.

 

It's ok

I challenged them on the visitors parking stating that it was supposed to be at the front, in an easily visible spot for visitors to find but they (Vincent TP Tim) stood firm on it.

I'm pretty sure the grass core stuff will end up dying too but I need to find another 100sqm of soft landscaping so I agree to it, put it in, if it dies then I guess I pave it. James Christou also suggested pergola planted with vines over the driveway area and the TP section suggested whilst it's not in any policy that it would be considered as perhaps justification for some shortfall.

Construction quote won't be done until the plan is finalised so it's still estimated for now.

Ummm thanks for your input

 

Plant bamboo. It's grows vertically and quickly and feeds off the car park run off.

The vines over a trellis work, but to a point. Grapes are a pain in the ar*e and Wisteria gets out of control.

Pulling reversing areas down to 5.8m with max 1.0m reversing and minimizing driveway widths can net a fair bit.

Inspired like their little letterbox piers, maybe a GRC cap to the top and a little succulent roof garden there too....?

All cheaper than grass core.

 

What was the TP's specific concern with having the bay within the front setback? purely cosmetic/streetscape?

Dodgy option - have the visitors car bay conveniently next to a resident's car bay/front door, then once construction finishes you reclaim it for the resident and designate that patch of verge currently used as a carpark as the vistors bay?

 

Hi Skuttles . Can happen but can't be titled or ceconded with an easment because Local Authority have delegated authority over the titles.

 

We will look at all options before deciding - definitely we will be 'sculpting' the driveway around reversing circles to gain more soft landscaping that way. We have met all 'design' items so will work with TP and Tech Services Dept on these issues and circulate via email back to DAC for Design Excellence.

It's mainly about streetscape and the front units interaction with the street BUT it doesn't seem to take into account that the front unit in this instance enjoys 2 street frontages so having a car park in front of it's stairwell hardly impacts on it's outdoor amenity.

As Aaron said we can't quite do as you say but we can combine the visitors bay with unit 1s bay and not reclaim it.

 

Ta guys

 

It took awhile to get the confirmation on the Design Excellence as some of the committee members were away but it came through today. Yippee!!!

Now it goes through the rest of the DA process and hopefully smoothly!

 

Myf, absolutely love the 3D rendering, simply awesome.

 

Is that grass on the driveway?

 

Sigh..... yes. We couldn't use the 120sqm future road widening reservation on one side to contribute towards landscaping criteria so had to add in some extra soft landscaping on the driveway. It has trafficable cell structure underneath to make it work.

 

Hopefully it will look as good when it's finished.

 

They don't want driveways off the side with the road widening easement?

 

No because there would be too many driveways close together and also it's a major road so they would each need a turning bay. It worked out better to run them off a common driveway from the other street.