News & Updates

Our planning team has just completed lodgement of a 14-lot subdivision application to Brisbane City Council.

The subdivision will create 14 residential lots connected by a private road (common property) across two stages. An existing dwelling is to be relocated to one of the new lots.

Challenges resolved

A number of planning challenges were resolved with Council through a pre-lodgement meeting undertaken as part of our client’s due diligence prior to purchase:

• A new public road was not feasible on this site due to existing intersection spacing and site constraints (including adjacent townhouse developments and a creek) limiting the potential for roads to connect with adjoining sites. Instead, a private road has been proposed which is at least 4 metres narrower than a public road—saving approximately 700m² of developable area, increasing lot sizes and yield.
• A nearby poultry farm restricts surrounding residential development due to odour and noise impacts. Council agreed to a staged approach to enable unaffected lots towards the front of the site to be developed (11 lots), and a second stage (3 lots) to be developed subject to closure of the poultry farm. This is supported by a specialist odour assessment commissioned by the developer.
• The site is flagged for protected vegetation under the Natural Assets Local Law 2003, but individual trees are not identified in Council’s mapping. It was determined that two leopard trees at the front of the site meet the criteria for protection as ‘significant landscape trees’ and these are to be retained on a new lot containing the relocated, existing dwelling. Retention of the leopard trees has minimal impact on the development and will improve the street appeal and character of the dwelling.
• The site contains a waterway corridor at the rear, associated with a nearby drainage channel. Although Council will not permit development or new lots within a waterway corridor, we confirmed that significant rehabilitation works would not be required based on the characteristics of the waterway. It is expected to be left grassed primarily for flood storage.

The value of due diligence

Having a pre-lodgement meeting with Council gave our client the confidence to settle on this site, knowing the maximum yield could be achieved and that the proposal is generally supported by Council. For more complex sites and larger developments, this can be a valuable risk reduction tool.

Our role in pre-lodgement

We can determine from an initial site review whether a pre-lodgement meeting is necessary. For this development, we assisted through all stages of the below process during our client’s due diligence period: