A development application to the Brisbane City Council is like watching the grass grow. It's probably not necessarily them, per say, just the combination of all the factors that makes things very, very slow.
At present it seems the sub division is all but approved, but they have an issue with the house. The uninhabitable level (yes, the part you're not supposed to live in) including the garage laundry and storage under the house is apparently too low. I hired an engineer and a town planner prior to submitting the application and they stand by their professional findings. So I'm at a bit of a standoff at the moment. Raising the house to what they require will be an additional $29,000 and won't fully mitigate any flooding, so it will really just be $29K wasted. Also, it will make the garage 1.6m off the natural ground level, so I will need a driveway on a 45 degree angle or a lift to get into it.
I have the team looking for another solution but we'll have to get moving quickly as the QLD Government Building Boost is due to expire on 30 April.
On a more positive note, I dropped around to the house today to see the state of the grass and decide whether we needed to mow it this weekend. We last did it about 3 weeks ago so considering all the rain and humidity we've had since then, it actually didn't look that bad. I'm so very happy too that my magnolias are looking fabulous. They went completely under in the flood and I'd only just planted them a couple of months before. There were 9 originally and I've only lost one, so I feel pretty lucky.
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