Recently, we came across the unfortunate story of a young couple, Mike and Susie, who had built up a decent amount of equity in their home at Oakleigh, Victoria. They were led to believe their backyard could be the stepping stone to their wealth creation plan- a dream each one of us aspires to at some time in our lives.  Their modest three-bedroom house was on a 550 sqm block in a suburb, which many would classify as being moderately hot.

Mike contacted a self-claimed expert in subdivisions and parted with his hard earned $6000 for a very basic schematic plan. That schematic plan was for a double storey, three bedroom townhouse. The schematic plan was submitted to Council’s pre town planning application meeting to determine how Council would respond to the proposal. Council’s Town Planner politely expressed her concerns stating the design failed to meet several of Council’s planning objectives.

The self-claimed expert had overlooked key planning requirements that could have been identified through a few initial phone calls to Council prior to starting the design process.

 The “expert” had failed to identify the existence of an easement at the rear of the site and designed part of the brick and tile garage on the easement; building a garage over an easement will be rejected by Council. One could build a detached carport in some instances, but not a garage. The expert provided the required private and secluded open space (aka courtyard); however it was less than the required depth and area as per the Residential Zoning 3 schedule. Then there was the issue of the living areas and the open space oriented towards the south, which is an absolute no-no with Council and would fail to address Rescode’s energy efficiency objective. Furthermore, only one car garage was allowed for, which was less than the required number of car spaces one has to provide for a three bedroom dwelling and the list went on.

The unfortunate part of this story was the cost to prepare the basic schematic plan for the three-bedroom house- a house which would never get planning approval, which means it would never be built! And Mikehad to say good bye to his $6000- there was no guarantee that the plan would be approved and neither would the money be refunded if planning approval wasn’t forthcoming.  And the $6000 wasn’t a Town planning permit drawing package- it was just a basic floor plan.

 A Town planning Application requires more than a schematic floor plan; Council will require detailed and dimensioned  floor plans,  a site plan, an existing conditions plan, elevations, shadow diagrams, overlooking plan, neighbourhood character overlay, a design response,  a site analysis, a finishes schedule,  a report to name a few of the documents to be submitted as part of the package.

Mike contacted our office a month later and we honestly told him his site had several issues and what he would get would be a modest two bedroom single level house.

On the other hand, John had a similar sized block of land in Hughesdale. He too wanted to retain the front dwelling, which was tenanted, and build a second dwelling in the backyard- commonly known as a dual occupancy. Due to the front, rear and side setbacks of the existing house, it was possible to design an attractive two bedroom, double story house with a study nook and garage. The back lot would be subdivided and that would be John’s exciting entry in the world of property development. John is now on to his second development- again retaining the existing dwelling and building a second 18 square town house on a small corner block

Subdividing small blocks is possible provided one does a proper assessment of the site, researches the zoning, overlays, and the neighbourhood style, adjoining dwellings to name a few of the things a would be developer should look out for.

As part of the town planning package, your Council will also require some or all of these items

Neighbourhood character overlay, which notes items such as existence of trees, size and shape of the allotment, type and heights of any fences, location of crossovers, adjoining building setbacks, height of adjoining buildings construction material, finishes of dwellings in the neighbourhood (some councils require a few adjoining dwellings and others require up to 20 adjoining buildings!) architectural style of dwellings and use of nearby land. A good land surveyor can provide photos and some of this information.

Location and size of easements

A recent Copy of Title and any covenants.

PS Architects