Architects don't just "draw stuff", they need to be able to get all 'political' and argue interpretations too.
It's a dodgey game as you're dealing with people who can [like to] make or break your day.... you have to be oh-so polite and 'reasonable', yet state in a way they don't realize...."you're just plain wrong" and get them to reverse their decision/requirement/amendment.
Last week I received an in-house-issued Planning Permit for 2 units...on a single, corner block...about 50 feet wide by about 130 long.
Now, by definition a FRONTAGE is the 50 bit of road facing North...and the 130 is the SIDE road [East].
Hassle was...it was a corner in the SAME road...so not 2 different names which may have eliminated [their] confusion.
I designed a PAIR of units...facing the SIDE street boundary.
Clever Planning Dept. determined/declared that since BOTH units had their front doors on that side...THAT was thus the FRONT of the site.
Wrong. The piece of land did not move....the Front is STILL the short bit facing North...not the long bit facing East.
What got their knickers in a knot is that the 'rear' unit DOES face the side street [East] and NOW will exist as a separate ratable entity so it DOES need to comply with the [3000] setback rule, however, although the front one is IDENTICAL [mirrored] it is still the FRONT one....[hence its name....with me still? ] and thus its front is yes, you guessed it...the FRONT of the site... and that means the SIDE [with a front door in it] only is required to be 2000 setback as is the case with a SIDE street.
Get with the program, girls [most Planners are female] ... you can't have it both ways, as if they hadn't seen sense I would have suggested that if the FRONT unit NOW faces a front to the East then the site's FRONT to the North must therefore be a SIDE and the current 5000 setback can legally be reduced to 3000.
I instead got a week's silence...no response from them as they were clearly contemplating their dilemma when lo and behold today I receive a revised Permit.
They had the last laugh, though...as they referred to the 'correction' as "consent to alter the application".
Ah, Planning in the outer 'burbs. It's so much more...um....logical in the CBD ...
