BRISBANE residents hoping to build sheds or granny flats may have to love thy neighbour and hope the feeling is mutual if the draft new plan is adopted in its current form.
Proposed regulations for residential blocks smaller than 400sq m will require written consent from neighbours before building can begin within 1.5 metres of the property boundary.
Housing Institute of Australia regional director for Queensland Warwick Temby said the HIA did not support the move and were flagging it with Brisbane City Council during the plan’s community consultation stage.
”It’s going to trigger more planning applications that weren’t previously needed and add to costs and time delays and make the whole process more difficult,” he said.
”Your neighbours will have the right to refuse what you want to do.”
Mr Temby said the proposed regulation ran counter to the plan’s encouragement of smaller blocks in areas such as around shopping centres, which the HIA supported.
Under the draft plan, developers can reconfigure a block to as small as 300sq m if it is within 200 metres of a centre zone – defined as including concentrations of activities such as retail, commercial, employment and entertainment.
”If we’re going to encourage people to live on small lots, that sort of impediment (neighbour consent for boundary developments) is not going to help,” he said.
The draft new City Plan also includes a proposal to raise building height limits in residential areas and scrap plot ratio controls for multi-dwelling projects, potentially encouraging larger developments than previously allowed.
For normal residential areas, the plan proposes building height limits are raised from 8.5m to 9.5m without development approval.
These heights were introduced in flood-affected suburbs after 2011 to allow for flood-safe building but due to their success are now proposed for the entire council area.
Queensland University of Technology resident planner Michael Papageorgiou said the increase would mean more flexibility Brisbane homeowners.
”People have another metre whereas under the old scheme they would have had to go under a more onerous application process to get it approved,” he said.
”(Existing homeowners who) need to do extensions or changes can take advantage of that as well.”
While homes might grow upwards, multi-dwelling developments may also grow outwards.
Current plot ratio controls regulate the portion of a block that can be built on but under the new plan these controls are set to disappear.
Residential floor space will only need to comply with setback and height restrictions, which is a potential advantage for larger blocks.
But Mr Temby said the change would be mostly unnoticeable.
”It’s like wearing belts and braces – if you’ve got setback controls and height limit controls, the floor space takes care of itself,” he said.
”It’s an unnecessary control that council is getting rid of that will make people’s life a bit easier.”
The draft new City Plan is in the community consultation stage, open to public comment until midnight July 30.
The plan is available in full, along with interactive maps, on the Brisbane City Council website.
Feedback can be submitted via an online form, email, Facebook or Twitter, or by phoning council on 3403 8888.
Original article published at www.news.com.au by Melanie Burgess, Real Estate Reporter The Courier Mail 20/7/2013