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Waiting for house Planning, Patience is a virtue
By arlene | June 13, 2009
This was brought home (if you’ll excuse the pun) when we were in the process of getting our plans through Council. Our draughtsman is a lovely man. He managed to keep the peace between my husband and myself when we were thrashing out what we envisaged our home could become. He drew what we wanted -or both agreed on. He had adhered to Council specifications in drawing up our plans and assured us that the plans would eventually go through.
If your draughts person/architect says, ‘Leave it to me, I’ll follow up,’ it is certainly your prerogative to let them continue walking your plans. You’re paying them, why should you stand in the queue? If time is on your side, go for it. However, we did not have time on our hands.
The plans went in. One of the inspectors was ill and the Council was short staffed. Be patient, advised our man. I had been told not to call for a progress report before four weeks had elapsed after submission. Four weeks went by and then six and we got anxious.
Having plans passed is a bit like natural childbirth without an epidural (been there and done that – afterwards you forget the pain and insist that it wasn’t that bad). We were sweating bullets. Rent was being paid on the house across the road, and still our plans had not moved through Zoning.
With the clock ticking, one fine Monday I called our local Council and requested an update on our plans. (You don’t need to be an expert to do this. You simply need your reference/erf number and off you go.
The very polite official said that I could call on Friday as he still had a way to go before he got to our number. I hung up. Something niggled. What happens if our plans are incomplete? Are we then likely to be shunted to the back of the queue? Will we have to wait another week before our number comes up again?
I called the nice official, no doubt interrupting him from his work yet again. Did he have everything he needed? He checked our file. Actually, no he did not. The engineer’s report had not been included. As the registered homeowner I had not signed a certain blue form and measurements were missing from one of the elevations. The Council office was closing in twenty minutes but if I raced there, I could sign the form. I did this and he kindly wrote in the measurements, which I signed.
And so the plans were able to move out of his department. Apparently, plans are often sent in incomplete, or with incorrect dimensions. I discovered this in the following two weeks when I made several trips to the Council as the plans moved from department to department. I interacted with many homeowners who were walking their plans through.
Too many people blame councils for dragging their feet, but having been there and watched what goes on, I think we can all endeavour to do our bit and make sure that our plans are ship-shape. That would save the Council wasted effort scrutinising plans and sending them back for amendments, often for things that the draughts people should really get right the first time. One day, I saw a gentleman provided with coloured pencils because his architect had not coloured in his plans. That is customer service.
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Topics: Department, Form | 7 Comments »
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