whitehorse council tree removal permit

I am planning to buy a property in blackburn. In the back yard there are couple of medium to big size trees. What i know is that to get rid of these trees you need to get permit from the council. I just want to know from you experience people,
is it easy to get the permit to remove trees for subdivision?
During planning permit if the lanscape plan shows trees would that be considered by council?

Thanks

 

You can call the council to check whether a tree is a heritage/ can/ cant be removed. If can then the permit process shouldnt be hard though Im interested in hearing from people who’ve actually done it too. I have a few trees in my land that’ll need to be taken out and bit concerned about cost.

 

Find out if the trees are identified in the planning control/zoning, or if there is an overlay.
If neither applies, the no consent would be required for removal. Are the trees native?
You normally don't need a landscape plan for subdivision
If the trees are shown on an endorsed landscape plan - you will be obliged to keep them as part of the development

 

Isn’t consent generally needed for any trees over a certain diameter?

 

Our development is also in Whitehorse. We had to take into consideration over 30 trees, only about 10 of them on our actual site.

Removing non native trees especially those under a certain diameter wasn't too difficult. Larger trees will affect the plans. Even if they're not going to be removed or even on the property their root coverage needs to be considered.

All of this is given to you via an arborist report. We had to go back to the the arborist about 5 times during the design process. Even then, when the site clearing began, one neighbour was on the phone to the council and they had inspectors out.

That neighbour is the only one who has opposed what we're doing, despite it being a very appropriate development that only enhances the value of their property. I have a nice p*ss off moment planned for them when the build is completed.

 

Only if it has "protection" under the planning control...

 

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

 

Newsflash: the anonymous door step pooper in Whitehorse has been identified as a prominent mortgage broker who goes by the name PT Bear.

 

All of the neighbours have been quite supportive of our build. When we were at the planning stage, we invited everyone around to look at what we were doing and consult with them. The neighbour to the south had a few comments and suggestions which we took on board for a win-win.

The neighbour to the north didn't like that our windows faced their bedroom window, on the far side of a heavily forested reserve. You can barely see their house and as it's more than 14 metres away, the architect short down their objection.

When the formal objection was registered, it suggested we like to look at naked children, in their backyard, on the far side of their house. Never mind that even without the trees there's no direct line of sight, nor that their other neighbours already do have a directly line of sight.

On moving in I have a telescope that I'll set up in the windows, looking at the trees that obscure their house...

 

Simple answer is yes, it is fairly straight forward to get a permit to remove trees IF they are not considered to be of high retention value.

You should ideally have a qualified arborist on board to assess all trees on site. They will provide a report on the species/size/health/retention value of every tree which immediately shows which trees you can remove without a permit and which will require a permit. By default, if the tree trunk circumference is below the prescribed threshold (check on council website), you can remove it without a permit.

Trees that require a permit but are of low retention value is more likely to be permitted to remove if you demonstrate that the trees fall within your proposed building envelopes

 

Neighbour of ours had two large trees on their property that were of high value, both huge/aged native trees.
One Saturday afternoon, 5 or 6 gentlemen with boom lifts (no road closing permits or dare I say tickets to operate boom) appeared with chainsaws, dropped the trees, neighbours had their phones out recording, one had even called the after hours number for the local council where person on the other line stated trees are on private property so nothing council can do (find extremely hard to believe)
It has been about 6 weeks since this happened and absolutely nothing has been done, no doubt developers will play dumb.
With our current development we hit a snag with a tree on the neighbours parcel, they had encroached the tpz by even greater than the allowed amount, we have had to reduce the setback of one of the homes to accommodate.

 

On a similar note, did anyone note the Dec 31 expiry on the current temporary restriction on trees?

Assuming they don't renew it into 2019, what would be the venue to confirm the restriction hasn't been renewed and it's fine to go ahead and do some changes in the garden?