■ 3 Capital Avenue,
Glen Waverley
This project consisted of demolition of the existing house and replacement with two large French Provincial style dwellings. Monash City Council were not supportive of the application but ultimately the development was approved by VCAT in October 2018.
CHALLENGE
Glen Waverley has become a popular suburb for knock down, rebuild projects but when the redevelopment increases the number of houses on the lot from one to two then a planning permit is required. This provides Council a strong influence on the design outcome and in this case they were not supportive of the application on the basis that it was inconsistent with the established neighbourhood character. This was deeply upsetting and confusing for our clients because they had seen a number of single houses redevelopments in their street that were directly comparable to what they wanted to build.
SOLUTION
Following the council refusal we were engaged to prepare and appear at a VCAT hearing for our clients. VCAT have a much broader view of defining neighbourhood character and attach a lot of weight to the emerging character of a street when assessing whether a new development respects this character. Our experts were able to effectively demonstrate to the tribunal that the development was consistent with the emerging character and on this basis the refusal was overturned and the development approved.
“Thanks to the CS team for taking on our VCAT case against Monash council. Everyone there was very helpful, informative and professional from the start to finish and the process was very easy. Everyone responded to email/phone calls promptly.
And we got the outcome we were after!
ENZA R