In late March, we received official notification from council that our planning application would go to the April Town Planning Meeting, with the recommendation from the Planning Department being one of refusal.
We had to wait until the Friday before the meeting to actually get our hands on the report and see exactly what was in it. Of course, this gave us, the applicants, limited time to try and react to the report.
Friday morning came. I awoke early and jumped straight onto the council website to download the report.
As I opened it, I thought, whatever is in here is likely to set the tone and mood for the day, and I'm expecting it isn't going to be great.
I started to read through the grounds for recommended refusal. It seemed like it was everything you could possibly think of.
While the issue to date had been parking, the Planning Department had literally thrown the book at us. Every issue we'd worked through to resolve (most of which weren't even relevant) was listed. They'd even thrown in some new ones that hadn't been raised previously.
I was ready for a drink, and it wasn't even 8am.
Beer probably wouldn't cut it. Top shelf would possibly do the trick, but I'd better hold off for a few hours and try to do what I could to save this.
With one last opportunity, I pulled together an email to all the councillors, just to clearly point out that the majority of what was in the report had been dealt with previously or wasn't relevant.
As per my previous emails to them, all we'd been told was that the issue was parking.
Finally, Some Good News!
Monday morning came, and I got a call from one of the councillors.
I'd spoken with her earlier in the year. She was extremely supportive then, and she still was. She wanted to meet me on-site to get a better understanding of what we were planning to do, and also a bit of background from me on the entire process we'd been through.
We met on-site. She had a good look around and took some photos.
She couldn't see any issues, was still in full support and also mentioned that a lot of the other councillors had the same view.
She was going to put forward an alternate motion at the committee meeting to approve rather than refuse.
Finally, we had some comfort that this might go our way.
The Moment of Truth
7pm hit, and we logged into the council meeting from home.
We were second up on the agenda.
First was another hot topic for council, an application for some shops that had over 300 objections, yet the Planning Department had recommended approval.
Crazy…
They overturned that one and refused it.
Next up was our permit.
Kylie and I sat there in my office with our eyes glued to the computer screen, like we were about to be awarded an Oscar, with both nerves and excitement battling each other.
The councillor presented the alternate motion to approve our application. It was quickly seconded, then it went around the room, where almost every councillor spoke about why they approved of it, many with words of encouragement and support.
They were all backing us.
Not only did we have the votes needed, we actually had 100% of the councillors on our side.
And within 12 minutes, we heard the word…
"APPROVED!"
As you can expect, after such a long journey and almost 12 months going through the process, it was emotional.
There were tears from both of us. Tears of relief, excitement and joy, followed by a few beers in celebration.
Holy Shit… We're Actually Doing This!
So now we have approval.
Shit… we're actually doing this now!
It's real. It's happening!
While we still need to get a few things finalised on the paperwork side, the wheels are in motion.
There's a lot to do, and we'd better get moving with it.
Pakenham, your local brewery is coming!