What if your allocated a difficult council town planner

Hi

Thought I might as well ask this on the off chance someone has some advice / experience

- I have been allocated a council town planner for my recently submitted townhouse development application.

I am aware that this town planner is known to be difficult.

Does anyone have advice, I assume you get what you get and there is no way to request / re allocation to a different council town planner for the assessment of my application etc

 

You won't be able to request a re allocation in any case especially because you have heard they are difficult. At the end of the day they are there to assess the development based on the stipulated DCP & LEP's in place and can only base determinations off these controls. If the development satisfies the requirements then an approval should be warranted. If the proposal "pushes the boundaries" then you may not be in luck. The best advice would be to have a good architect and town planner on board who can argue/ justify any non compliances if there are any.

 

Have a lot that complies with the council plan and the person reading it shouldn't matter?

 

Interpretation is key. Some have special reading glasses

Find someone alongside or superior to old mate then call and ask to speak with new mate. Avoid the problem child as much as you can. Along with knowing what your doing and arm yourself with as much info as you can.

Some big hugs and making them feel super important can go a long way feed them info and answers and make them out to be super awesome with all the solutions

 

If he/she gives you to much trouble let me know and we'll work something out

 

I know of a surveyor who determines a scullery as a habitable living room. Gets annoyed if you don't have a window and sufficient ventilation.

Personally I don't worry too much about the difficult ones, speak to the senior planner if you have trouble and build a rapport with them. Whatever you do don't argue with difficult ones.

 

Firstly understanding "difficult" means border-line incompetent/inexperienced, or pedantic, or lazy.
Secondly resign yourself that you are stuck with the planner
Then keep to the moral high ground. Do everything right, and proper. Diuscss by all means but know when you are banging your head against a brick wall.
Take notes, send confirmation emails back
Always be friendly, or at least polite (after all, they probably don't even know they are a problem and encounter much negativity anyway)
Always ask - is there anything more you need, anything more I can help with
Ask for indications of timing, then follow up
Get a private planner on side so that you have good solid background. Consider having your planner working in the background so as to not intimidate the "difficult planner" (that will be a call based on the particular circumstances
Take a deep breath....

 

Make sure you employ your own gun townplanner, will make a massive difference, they should have skill set/expertise to deal with this

 

Thanks People - all sound advice

Fingers X'd its OK,

I'm not a fan of overly playing the nice nice dear when they sit in their ivory tower, but I've done it B4 and if it gets the end game as I want then its worth it hey

 

Be nice to them

Ask for their advice . What would they do ? Do they have any suggestions for you about what you want to do ?

We've taken this approach and have got TWO NON COMPLYING SUBDIVISIONS though council in Ku-ring-gai , which is a notoriously difficult council to deal with .

Cliff

 

Just don't sit on your hands waiting for something to change if it is going pearshaped and you have done everything you can to facilitate a good planning outcome. If your banging your head against a brick wall either call a meeting with their team leader or put in the paperwork for a failure appeal.

 

Theoretically yes, but the tough (incompetent) planner will ask for unnecessary additional reports etc to cover their backside and cost the client lots of extra time and $$$.

Even if you then get a meeting with their manager they all close ranks and will not admit anything. Welcome to NSW planning, maybe Vic and SA are better but that is the case here.........

 

Let him do his thing. The dice has been rolled and you're already freaking out before the numbers are called.

The most important thing with any DA, difficult planner or not is to stay on top of it, make sure he doesn't drag on with the assessment. If you let it go from under you, it will.

- when it comes off notification, call and ask if there were any objections
- call and ask if he's done a preliminary assessment and if he sees any issues with it
- ask him if he's going to request any additional info or amendments.
- communicate as much as you can in writing.

Go from there.

 

OR she......

 

Exactly the same here in Vic - it's a bureaucratic thing...

 

Hi Everyone,
I'm new here and still learning the basics.

I was recently reading through a DA for a multi townhouse develpment on a piece of land that is for sale. It seemed to me that council had really gone to the nth degree when stipulating conditions of consent on this particular DA. Granted I have only read a few of these but things like culling the original no of townhouses from 8 to 7, requiring an allocated rejuvenation area on the block with a Habitat Rejuvenation Plan to be submitted from a qualified bush regenerator and a cash bond of 130% of the total costs of the HRP to be held by council, yearly compliance statements to be submitted for the life of the HRP or otherwise forfeiting the bond, onsite water detention system (in a low density area) etc etc.

It got we wondering whether there can be a flip-side to having a "gun town planner". In smaller regional areas there are often not too many companies that offer a "one stop shop" for town planning needs. Larger developers will be using these companies. Is it possible that utilising these companies may actually work against you as far as council holding a grudge against them from previous dealings? e.g. endless applications for excessive development that are refused by council only to then submit a more realistic application (but stil quite aggressive) in the hope that it will be approved.

On an individual DA in place, it seems that you might be inheriting a whole lot of bad blood that relates to years of previous power-struggling and the major restrictions that council have applied as a consequence. Just a thought...

 

This+
I don't deal with council planners on a one to one until I have it over the line.

This is why I employ a competent town planner he understands the beast he is dealing with, most of the time it laziness combined with incompetence.

MTR