Yes, you are right, sometimes even in the same council area, there are different rules for different suburbs, or even different streets, or even different parts of same street has different rules.
The only way you can get confirmation is to get building zones and guidelines documents first from the council, and then check with the council building department about a particular property.
In eastern area, campbelltown is not as strict as Norwood, and Burnside is notoriously the most rigid and difficult council.
But in all cases, council will allow some flexibility. For example 349 is no difference from 350, so you will be sure they will approve it. 310 can be a bit tricky, but if you can put justification and can convince the council that you are still meeting the guidelines, they sometimes will approve as well. And based on my experience, although council has the right for the final say, they are in general very reasonable as well.
Another thing is that you can never count on the existing properties. Rules are constantly changing. Even you see there is same size of land on the street, you can't be sure that they will approve the same thing.
So always check with council again and again, but if you understand guidelines in mind first, that can save you a lot of time. |