When the work to lodge an application is so hard you need a beer

The planning department of a certain local Council's relations with the public have taken a new direction.

Despite a pre-lodgment meeting and all the consultants being briefed to the outcomes of that meeting, a planner refused to accept my client's application for a Construction Certificate over the counter for the following reasons:
- The landscape plan (by a person on the Council list) did not have enough heritage.
- One tank on the engineer's stormwater plan, labelled as being located as per the architectural plan, was not precisely in the same location as on the architectural plan.
- That the SEPP 1 objection which was two pages calling up in detail Clause 21 of the LEP did not address Clause 21.

The client went away puzzled. They rang me.

I was puzzled.
What was a heritage landscape? Was it old plants or English plants?
Did the planner know more than the Engineer?
Was my understanding of Clause 21 which had been confirmed in the meeting with Council somehow missing an aspect?

I told them to ring the person they had dealt with and clarify.

The clarification:
- the landscape plan was to detail the species and precise number of all existing plants.
- the engineer's stormwater plan was not up to the standard required for a CC.
- that Clause 21 required the SEPP1 to address amongst other things, streetscape, security etc and the list went on to include many things required in a Statement of Environmental Effects.

The client called me to ask if I could help them sort it out.

They told me they had a headache and they needed a beer.

The next installment on the following day was that:
-the landscape plan's hedges need to be curved and 'softened'.
-that the tank on the engineer's stormwater plan was in conflict with a citrus tree.
-that for the Clause 21 I was meant to write under all the headings that Council may have to consider when considering the "underlying objectives" of a SEPP 1.

The curved hedge was an engima. By definition a hedge is a 'line' of plants! Also you can't prune them easily unless they are in a straight line. Cutting plants in curves is quite difficult. The next point that puzzled us was: when is a hedge not 'soft'?

For the stormwater it appears they had not understood that the tank was beside the citrus tree. In any case, it appears the engineer's work was up to the standard. Just a minor alteration to put the tank in precisley the same spot as the architectural. If their work had not been, the engineer would have been negligent. And an accusation like that in writing could have triggered liability issues for both them and myself.

And finally it appears I am to do the assessment of the SEPP 1 application for Council. Self assessment! This is very good for us! They are finally trusting architects, who by definition in the code attached to the new Architects Act are impartial.

And the application is for .... relocating a small single storey cottage, in keeping with and slightly more interesting than it's neighbours, to a site with an existing house, in a neighbourhood noted for its, um, adjacent road.

I took the job on as it's environmentally sound, re-using existing material and seemed simple!

It just got complex.

The interesting upside is that with all this work before the application goes in, it should be a breeze gaining approval, as all the issues are sorted, and no nasty letters that open legal pandoras boxes of defamation and liability!