Page 3449 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 September 2015
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They also said:
The single dwelling housing development code continues to have a series of irrational side setback requirements that will lead to very poor on block site planning outcomes.
Mr Tony Trove from the Institute of Architects called the solar access rules “policy on the run”, and said:
It is not policy born out of a clear and intellectual review of where we are at.
Mr Hamish Sinclair from the Planning Institute of Australia said:
… in many respects, we did find ourselves in the position of recommending this variation be withdrawn and recommenced from the start, mainly because it does not achieve good planning outcomes.
Not only did people in the community say that the rules were bad planning; they also pointed out that they were complicated and would make it very difficult to unravel.
Mr Jerry Howard from the MBA said in March of 2013:
It is the most complex, confusing thing on earth. When they—the planning authority—see the results on the ground, we’ll spend another two years trying to iron all this out.
Well, that is exactly where we are. Let me repeat:
It is the most complex, confusing thing on earth. When they see the results on the ground, we’ll spend another two years trying to iron all this out.
Here we are, two years on, and we are trying to iron it out right now. Mr Glenn Dowse from DNA Architects said:
So what we are doing is compromising northern space, and we think that is a particularly bad result of 306.
The government was warned about the impact of variation 306. However, despite all the experts who raised serious issues, the government was determined to proceed with it. Since variation 306 was introduced, people in the industry have continued to raise solar access rules as a major problem in the planning system, and the committee hear about it on a regular basis. The concerns are not going away.
Now that we are seeing suburbs which were designed to comply with the solar access requirements, we are starting to understand the extent of the problem. Some suburbs have entire streets where every house has been built below the level of the road so they do not overshadow their neighbour. There are many houses that are the wrong way on the block. Many are expensive to heat and expensive to cool. Many houses cannot have a decent backyard due to the way the blocks have to be positioned under solar access rules.
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