I was surprised to get a fairly quick response from council on 20 March, which required a response by 19 April. Not much time considering it also included Easter.
They required further information on a number of things including landscape. Which annoyingly meant that I needed to think about what I wanted for landscaping.
They also raised a number of issues:
- exceeding 40% site coverage - which I expected
- high level of visual bulk on the south side - again was told that this might happen
- failure to meet POS - huh? This did not make sense. I was definitely compliant.
Ending with and underlined 'Council is unlikely support your application in its current form' (I guess they also have poor grammar.)
Anyway, I thought it wasn't too bad, until my town planner friend highlighted that they said they're unlike to support the application! Also that it was best to avoid VCAT. After some sleuthing, I was also forewarned the council town planner might have or be about to resign.
My draftsman tried to get in contact with the council town planner numerous times to get clarification about the POS, and also arrange a meeting. When he was finally able to contact her it seemed like she wasn't sure what had been written in the ROI, and she would need to discuss with her team leader. Again difficulty getting in contact with her. Which made it difficult with the looming deadline. While also needing enough time to complete my landscape plan.
Lo and behold on Monday I found out that she had left. My draftsman was able to get in contact with the senior town planner and the POS seems to be okay. So we've made some minor changes and decided that it will be submitted without a meeting.
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