minutes - City of Stirling

MINUTES OF THE ORDINARY MEETING OF COUNCIL
18 SEPTEMBER 2012
4. Possibly encroachment on a water corporation easement
The Water Corporation has indicated that the setbacks from the sewer line are
adequate. Structures on the ground level are over 2.6m from the sewer line.
General streetscape and visual impact consideration (see page 1 of the
accompanying document)
In designing the house I have attempted to minimise the visual impact of the
building on the neighbours while attempting to meet out design requirements.
The height of the building at the front of the house (north elevation) is regulation
height and does not affect the streetscape. The property is a rear block and is at
a lower level than the road. This results in a design that does not impose itself on
the streetscape.
Impact to the side and rear neighbours is minimal with increased setbacks (west)
and removal of eaves (east). Impact to the rear neighbour has been addressed
with increasing the boundary setbacks.
Rational for the increased building height
In the design process we have attempted to take advantage of the existing contours of
the block and design a building that requires a minimum amount of siteworks (either
excavation or in-fill). By taking advantage of the 2m drop from the front of the block to
the rear I have been able to locate parking, storage and living space in the basement.
The benefit of this that we have not needed to push the size of the building out to the
minimum setbacks on all boundaries or introduce any parapet walls.
If we were required to drop the building height to the regulation 6m, the driveway grade
to the basement would be to great and we would have to redesign the house with a
more traditional 2 story configuration. In that process we would inevitably push the
house to the minimum setbacks along the side and rear boundaries and probably also
look at a parapet wall on one of the boundaries. This would result in a house of greater
mass and have a greater visual and overshadowing impact than the proposed design.”
Comment
The applicant is seeking a performance based assessment of the proposed building height
and building setback from the boundary.
The proposed building height is largely a result of the topography of the lot which falls 2.48m
from front (27.73 Australian Height Datum) to rear (25.25 AHD Australian Height Datum).
The finished floor levels (FFL) of the dwelling have been set at a level which is consistent
with the need to maintain a driveway gradient which meets the City’s standards.
The surrounding locality is characterised by a mixture of new, large, two (2) storey homes
and older single storey dwellings. Although the proposed grouped dwelling is located to the
rear of the property, and the frontage is not visible from the street it is important to note that
the height of the dwelling is consistent with those in the immediate area.
The amenity of the neighbours is not considered to be detrimentally affected as a result of
the proposal, with the development complying with all the relevant acceptable development
provisions of the R-Codes (with the exception of the minor setback variation sought).
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