We might have the same council
@rangersac
We are doing a reno atm, nothing groundbreaking, on a long, narrow block with a laneway at the rear. We have a carport off the laneway, so thought it would be a good idea to build a proper garage with a studio above, as many others have done near us.
Our neighbour has a big paperbark tree right against the fence next to our carport which hangs over our fence, drops leaves all year round & has a root system which has cracked the carport slab & broken the old ceramic sewer pipe which runs under the slab. We get on with them & understand they really like this tree so organised an arborist report ($) early on to keep the neighbours sweet. We replaced the broken sewer ($) which required pulling the carport down to get a big enough excavator in.
We did a lot of extra engineering wrangling ($) to work out how to build around this tree & engaged a planning consultant ($) to ensure the process ran smoothly. Our planning permit was approved & issued with a couple of conditions, one of which was that we must retain the carport slab, presumably to protect the tree's roots, though noone in the process had ever heard of anything like this before. Of course the garage cannot be built without new foundations, so more info was provided to council ($) about the floating foundations on piers which would mean the root system is not impacted, & a tree impact assesment ($) was prepared & submitted. The contact at council then suggested the condition around retaining the slab could be removed with a 'rubber stamp' arrangement with a tree management plan ($) in place, which we organised. This was all leading up to Dec 2016 & when council opened in 2017 she had moved to a different role.
The new council person wasn't having any of it & asked for more assesments/ plans ($) & stated that removing the condition needed to go through as an official ammendment ($). Council proceeded to drag their heels all year, looking for more info/ losing paperwork/ reffering documents to another officer who was on leave, etc. In Nov 2017 we said fuck it, it wasn't meant to be, & pulled the garage from the plans just after construction of the main house started. Council were notified we were not proceeding with the garage.
Just before christmas council got in touch to ask what was going to be at the rear of the property, in place of the garage which they had approved (which couldn't be built because of their clause). We explained that nothing was happening, that the old carport would be reinstated, as per the original application & site condition report. The old carport is still in pieces in the back yard for the most part.
Council informed us that putting our old carport back would require another ammendment ($).
How do you spell cnuts?
