Introduction to Building Guidelines

The Sands, Torquay is a diverse, unique and integrated residential golf course project located adjacent to a sensitive foreshore environment and the Karaaf Wetlands within the Surf Coast Shire. The Karaaf Wetland contains both wet and dry saltmarsh and is particularly significant because of the adjacent Poa grassland and dunal system. The dunes along this stretch are culturally significant to the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative, and are an important environmental conservation area with many remnant indigenous species including Moonah woodlands.

The Sands, Torquay Building and Environmental Management Code has been prepared to properly guide and ensure appropriate and consistent housing styles, materials and a lifestyle environment. The Sands, Torquay Management is committed to ensuring a high quality living environment for all residents. To this end it is essential that individual lot owners ensure their homes and gardens are in harmony with the overall concept.

The Sands, Torquay development will provide enhanced streetscapes, lakes, public reserves and valuable community amenities. This Code is designed to facilitate and complement this development by encouraging a consistency of housing and a unified neighbourhood character and environment. It is also intended to protect your lifestyle and investment by ensuring a high standard of design, construction and maintenance of all dwellings and landscaping; and by providing owners and builders with guidance and feedback on their home and garden designs.

The Code allows flexibility in housing styles without compromising the prestige and character of the development. It will ensure a high level of amenity and privacy within the development, and address a series of design issues such as the siting, form and composition of buildings, the type of materials, textures & colours used, and the relationship of buildings to the coastal character of the area.

An Architectural Review Committee has been established to expeditiously manage the approvals process. Its principle role is to provide guidance and approve home and garden designs. It will continue to operate in the long term to ensure that ongoing development and future landscaping is consistent with and does not compromise the amenity or prestige of the Estate.

Purpose of Guidelines

The purpose of the Building and Environmental Management Code is to:

· Establish appropriate architectural standards for all buildings and works, drafted in such a way that all buildings must be designed to comply with the objectives of the Councils Surf Coast Design Policy.

· Incorporate design standards that generally comply with Councils Coastal Development Policy relating to the siting, design and architectural articulation of buildings, including but not confined to minimising building bulk, height and the visual impact of development on the landscape.

· Highlight obligations or matters requiring the co-operation of owners or occupiers contained in the Environmental Management Plan that establishes and sets environmental standards for this development. (A copy of these obligations is attached as Appendix 1 to this Code).

The Code will be used to assess plans for single dwellings in accordance with Schedule 2, Clause 4 of the Comprehensive Development Zone in the Surf Coast Planning Scheme. It will also be used to assess planning permit applications for medium density housing and subdivision under the Comprehensive Development Zone.

Unless otherwise specified in the Code, development must also comply with the relevant provisions of ResCode (clauses 54 to 56) in the Surf Coast Planning Scheme.