Hi all,
       with Mum gone and no hope of a return, I decided to develop
this block by building a two-bed semi-detached on the back of the
existign house, using the dual-occupancy rules which shrink the sizes
required by most councils.

 I fired up the old AutoCad, drew a few lines... it looked really
good! I mentioned it to the lawyer handling probate and he agreed
that it was a great way to make $200,000 in a year... so I took my
rough plans up to the local council to see what came next.

 Canada Bay joined Drummoyne and Concord councils, and there are
still two separate Council Chambers. Headquarters is in Drunmmoyne so
I went there and a nice ladt gave me all paperwork no problems. You
would not believe how much crap you need tyo provide with a
Developemtbn Application unless you've already been thwere and done
that. I know *I* didn't believe it!

 You need a BASIX Certificate which shows that your house is energy
efficient and saves water (just add solar heating, a skylight, and a
water tank).
  
 A 2000-litre water tank! If the roof is 100 sqm (about average for a
small house), it will take 20mm to fill the tank. Average water useage
is 300-l a day.. so you need an inch of rain every week! Unfortunately
we haven't had an inch of rain in 3 months! We haven't had enough to
wash the roof.

 You need a "Statement of Environment Effects" (3 copies) You need a
waste management plan (a skip), an Energy and Conservation Report, a
Storrmwater Concept plan, Fire Safety measures...it gets sillier and
sillier.

 Basically, it's a *shitload* of paperwork that means fuck-all in the
real world, is a bloody nuisance to generate, but keeps the
bureaucrats in work.

 I had roughly a hundred pages to wade through (most of it
contradictory). That's ar bureaucrat-ploy I know well from my years
dealing with the Electricity Authority. The "rules" contradict, in
order to give the creepy bastards the ability to "interpret." Most of
the time, you suck arse and they give you anything you want if you
are presistent enough and make that the line ofleast resistance for
them, but in *reality* the "rules" are based on an Act of Parliament
and when all else fails you hire alawyer to frighten the fuckwits.

 I waded though the hundred pages, and they had left out a basic bit
of information.... the minimum size of the dual-occupancy block. From
memory, it was 300 sqm, and the minimum total blck was 600 sqm... but
I had to be sure so I went back to the Council, but this time to
Concord, which was closer.

 I different nice lady told me subdivision was not allowed. This was
obviously ridiculous (to anyone but a bureaucrat), so I went away
and came back the bext day to get a different one... who gave me what
I wanted except that it was called "Code for the erection of
residential flat buildings and boarding houses," with no mention of
Dual-occupancy, and a minimum block of 840 sqm with an 80 sqm
minimum for the flat itself so long as the total occupied less then
40% of the block. The resulting 336 sqm was a rather-large house!

 So... I gave up on Concord and went back to Drummoyne where I asked
for minimum block size and subdivided block size for dual occupancy. I
was told that dual-ocupancy was not permitted. "Why is it listed on
the DA?" I asked, reasonably, I thought. "That's an old form,. We're
working on the new one." It's got BASIX on it," I pointed out, "and
that only came into effect this month."

 So the nice lady got me an "officer" who told me the same thing.

 I pushed (gently) and hit the bureaucrat brick wall. 

 No worries... I went back to Concord (it's great having *two*
councils... freedom of choice), where I was told that dual occupancy
ended in 1999. "How come there's a guy building in Brays Road, now?"
I asked (reasopnably, I thought). "He must hav put in his DA before
the deadline." "But the contract has to be signed before the deadline,
not the DA. A contractor wouldn't wait four years to build... could
you check for me?"

 "There'll be a fee..."

 So far, I've seen five different "officers" and got five different
answers (with variations).

 And the website gives a *different answer again! (no problem with
subdivision, so long as the block is bigger than 400 sqm).

 I've been an entire week buzzing back and forth like a blowfly on
shit, and I'm no closer to any sort of an answer... except, "Go away
and don't bother us." I thought I had adegree in handling bureaucrats.
I've handled the Electricity Authority (in three states). I've been
through the Taxation Ofice. But these council fuckers are a whole new
breed.

 Anyway... I plan on living for another ten years, and I really don't
have much else to do.

Regards,
Bob


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