Case Study: Planning Permit for Pool Construction in Botanic Ridge
Not far from Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, our next potential customer had some enquiries about a building planning permit for their fibreglass pool in Botanic Ridge.
Botanic Ridge for those not familiar with the outer south eastern suburbs is neatly tucked between Skye to the west, Langwarrin to the south, Clyde to the east and Cranbourne to the north.
All pools and spas require a building permit, which is where an engineer will review at your plans and advise if it is suitable for a pool construction, in accordance with the Australian Standard AS1926.1. This is normally arranged by your pool builder who will use a preferred private building surveyor, and this is normally included as standard in your pool quote.
In some cases, however, you may also require a planning permit, which is different. Here we will step you through the details of this Botanic Ridge planning permit.
Our construction manager arranged a site visit with our potential customer to discuss their enquiry about a potential planning permit for a new pool build. This Botanic Ridge pool build required a planning permit because the customer wanted us to build a Sentosa 6.5m x 2.15m fibreglass pool and the space to install it was outside of the building envelope.
The building envelope is land that is outside of the existing plans for building development. The developer gives you an area which needs to include all structures within, and if the pool or spa cannot be installed in this existing area you need a planning permit. Botanic Ridge is renown for this so when we met the customers, we asked for their Section 32 and confirmed that we would require a planning permit for this site, along with the standard building permit.
A planning permit is obtained by the customer applying for the permit through local council. In this scenario once we had completed the site visit, quote and arranged the contract, we offered to work with the customer on their documents for their application. They had to submit their own plans, as well as details of the pool, so this time our Construction Manager Cam helped them with their drawings and documents in order to get their pool installed as quickly as possible.
Obtaining the planning permit can take anywhere from 3-13 weeks depending on the council, complexity of the installation as well as the accuracy of the application documents. If your documents are not detailed enough there can be a lot of back and forth, which is why it is best to find a Pool Builder who is willing to help you with your documents.
The application fees depend on the cost of your pool so it is important to get your quote before arranging your permit. The cost is different for each Council, but generally cost between $200- $400.
After a few weeks the customer received their planning permit and we could get to work. The pool build was no different to any other job once we had the conditions of the permit outlined. We used a franner crane for a simple excavation and installation and 2 days later we had a beautiful Twilight fibreglass pool.
As you can see, Master Pools can help you with any new fibreglass pool build, even when other pool builders think it may be too difficult. Contact us here if you are interested in getting a free Master Pools site visit in Bayside Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula or South East Melbourne to check if you may need a planning permit, or make an appointment today to visit our Cranbourne West Pool Display Centre.
