Pine Avenue Case Study - Two Lot Subdivision

The Property:

• Land Area: 1050m2
• Waitakere City Council
• Zoned: Living
• Natural Area: General

The property is typical of the private residences built circa 1955. Being a 3 bedroom weather board house with an iron roof, pole foundations and the base clad in fibrolite sheet. An original concrete deck surrounds the front door with the later addition of french doors and wooden deck at the rear. There is also the addition of a double skyline garage and workshop probably constructed around 1970. The house is situated on the front half of the section with enough room for a driveway down each side. This situation is fairly typical of that era when people wanted larger backyards for the children to play in and be able to plant a reasonable vege garden.

The Project:

The proposal was to carry out a two lot subdivision. The first step of the project was an initial site survey and Title search. This established the boundaries of the property along with the position of existing buildings, concrete areas, drainage, services (power, phone and water) and contours of the ground.

The site survey often highlights issues that need to be addressed in the application and is the basis for all the future work on the site.

Resource Consent:

This Resource Consent had two parts: one was a Land Use Consent and the other was a Subdivision Consent.

A Land Use Consent deals with the ecological and amenity side of the development. This includes items such as daylight controls, outdoor living areas, tree planting and how the construction is to be completed. A Subdivision Consent deals with providing services to the land, what work has to be completed, fees to be paid and the legal issues involved in creating new titles.

A Resource Consent application requires that every aspect of a proposed subdivision be assessed against the Council's rules relating to the particular zoning of the land in question. The application also includes an assessment of any environmental effects and the identification of any affected parties.

On this project the issues to be resolve included; the position of the existing garage which would not allow access past the right hand side of the house; a Pohutukawa tree which would be within the building platform of a future dwelling and also the disposal of stormwater from the back lot as there was no existing public stormwater system serving the property.

The Resource Consent application was submitted to Waitakere City Council at the beginning of March. A Section 92 (request for further information from Council to fully assess the application) was received at the beginning of April. This request for information was in regard to the Height In Relation to Boundary infringements for the new dwelling, the removal of a protected tree (Pohotukawa) and replanting and screen planting along the boundary adjacent to the neighbouring property.

When the Council was satisfied with all of the information supplied, the Resource Consent was issued at the beginning of June. This processing of the consent had taken 3 months. The time taken for a Resource Consent to be issued is dependent on the complexity of the development.

Building Consent:

A Building Consent is often required for construction work to be completed on site.

At Pine Ave, the Building Consent included; moving the existing garage onto a new concrete floor; installation of a detention tank for the stormwater from the existing house and garage; connecting the existing house up to a new sanitary sewer connection; installing power, phone and water connection and a new vehicle crossing for the new (rear) lot.

An application for a Building Consent requires detailed information to show specifically how the work will be done.

In this case, this included Architects Plans of the garage foundation footings and structure; a site plan of where the services would be laid, detailing the depth of the trench and where in the trench each of the services would be placed. The application for the new vehicle crossing was included with the Building Consent. This also required a road opening notice for work on the road berm and footpath. Other plans for the drainage, stormwater and sewer were drawn showing exactly where this drainage would run and how it would connect with the Council's public system. All the private construction work was included in one Building Consent application.

Once the Building Consent is issued then construction can proceed.

Construction:

A Setout survey was required at this stage to position the garage and accurately mark the boundary adjacent to the garage for the installation of the drainage and services. This was also a good time to peg the new boundaries.

Three quotes were obtained from each of the trades involved. It is preferable to limit the number of companies doing the work. At Pine Ave, the builder handled all aspects of moving the garage, including the electrical and plumbing work. A drain layer complete all the drainage work and the vehicle crossing. The installation of the detention tank and associated plumbing was organised by the owner. During construction, inspections are required. All inspections need to be completed and passed in order to have a Code of Compliance Certificate issued.

Most projects have those small problems that hold up everything because of an assumption or misunderstanding. In this project the new manhole lid was not concreted because it was in the driveway for the new house and it was planned to be done during driveway construction. This is reasonable, but the Council inspector would not sign off the final drainage inspection until it was done.

The unexpected also happens on occasion. Having removed the garage from it's foundations, the builder then cut the concrete to prepare for the new foundations. The sanitary sewer drain was (very unexpectedly) only 100mm below ground and was also cut. There was nothing flowing through it at the time and it looked abandoned. The builder completed digging out and boxing up the foundations ready for an inspection first thing Monday morning. On Monday we discovered the whole of the foundations filled with raw sewerage. The sewer line was not where it was supposed to be and this caused delays all round. The drainlayer had to lay a temporary sewer line, the inspection was cancelled, a sewage pumping truck contacted to empty the foundations,the concrete delivery postponed and special considerations were required for the workers to ensure their health and safety. This caused almost a weeks delay.

Legal Survey

The legal survey was completed at the same time as the construction. This involves marking the boundaries in accordance with the survey regulations and preparing the legal plan which the new title is created from. New title plans are different as they are now created electronically in Land on Line. The draft title plan for this proposal is available to download here as an example. The title plan consists of a header page with the new title references, then easement schedules and finally a diagram of the property.

Certification

The certification process involves applying to council for the sign off for all work, including approval under sections 223 and 224c of the Resource Management Act. This process is made much smoother if all the correct documentation is collected during the construction and inspection process, and is almost impossible if the works have not been completed as approved under the Resource Consent!!