Shire Precedent - Development

[Francesca C]

Hi Everyone

I am currently looking at a corner block 1012 sqm with existing house. I am looking at bulldozing the house and splitting into 3 vacant lots of land.

The zoning is R25 and I need a minium of 1050sqm to complete the subdivision however, I am able to request a 5% variation which will bring my block up to 1071sqm.

I do not want to put this condition on the offer because I am putting in an offer $100k under the asking price and want to sweeten the deal. Otherwise, it will be subject to shire approval which can take up 4 months, if I put this condition on the contract plus $100k under, I do not like my chances. This property has been on the market a while and is a deceased estate. However, the children do not seem too worried.

I am just wondering if shires have to stick to previous precendents set. For eg. I know two streets away, there is the same sized block, corner block, same zoning, quiet street like mine and they have allowed the 5% variation.

I am a little nervous banking on this but will the shire be able to say no when they have allowed the same thing 2 streets away. I am very particular with my calculations and never bank on capital growth and always allow a percentage in case things go wrong.

Has anyone had any experience with shires and using precedents?

 

[JoannaK]

i believe, but don't quote me, that there really isn't any precedent when it comes to planning approvals...

 

[MichaelW]

i believe, but don't quote me, that there really isn't any precedent when it comes to planning approvals...

Joanna,

That was my experience recently with Pittwater Council too. They explicitly stated that precedents were irrelivant, and that we should not use them to justify a variation to our setbacks. We had to argue along the lines of minimizing bulk and scale, but they allowed the variation in the end.

But, strictly speaking, they said we could not argue precedent to get the DA through.

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[knightm]

I would presume if you can't do a 3 lot subdivis you can still do 2. I would calculate whether I can make a profit based on the 2 lot version then if you can get for a low enough price and the numbers work buy it without the condition then you can have a crack at the 3 lots and if it fails then you still do ok.