When liaising with Council regarding your townhouse or unit development’s drainage submission, knowing these three things will dramatically improve your negotiating position.
World peace! That’s what we would have if everybody got what they wanted. But in the real world, we all have conflicting preferences, and the same holds true when dealing with Council engineers.
Whether its the number of townhouses or units you can put on a site, or whether its the size and extent of an in-ground drainage system, the typical developer and the Council will likely have opposing preferences.
In any ensuing negotiation its important to remember that the goal of any negotiation is to satisfy your own preferences. In this article we will cover the top three things you need to know when negotiating with Council on drainage approvals.
#1: Know Where You Stand
The first step in satisfying your preferences, is knowing what those preferences are. In the context of your next project’s drainage design, you will want to know what the nature fall of the land is, what the overland flow profile of your proposed development is, and what the most economical outcome is for your development’s drainage infrastructure.
Your drainage engineer will have completed a design for your development based on Australian Standards, industry best practice, and the physical laws that govern drainage design. At the most basic level, the design should represent the most economical way to get stormwater runoff from any point on your development’s site to the Council’s approved or legal point of discharge.
#2: Know What Council Wants
While we are satisfying our preferences, Council is also satisfying theirs. Council’s preferences are usually policy-driven and within the context of a wider drainage infrastructure. They are not usually out to prove a point or to grandstand, but are simply trying to advocate for what they have deemed to be best for their drainage system.
In navigating Council’s preferences it is important to have a handle on what the Council’s own rules and policies say, and why they say them. Some of their concerns may include water discharge quality, ecological preservation, integrity of the existing drainage infrastructure, or, more commonly, some combination of all of the above.
Keeping open lines of communication and having a common (technical) language are critical so that you can figure out what their real concerns are. Once you know what they are concerned about, you can start to have a constructive conversation about how to best work through their issues.
#3: Know Your Options
There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. So the larger your toolbox of solutions, the more likely you are to be able to solve a problem efficiently.
With regards to drainage plans and Council negotiations it is important to have a strong fundamental understanding of drainage design. But more than that, also a firm grasp of Council policies and objectives and experience with past precedents through previous designs.
It may seem at first glance that, with the power of final approval, Council have all the negotiating power in determining what you must or must not do. But the truth of the matter is that they are simply trying to best serve their own goals. Most of the time, there is value to be gained in engaging with Council to help them achieve their end goals while also maximising project profitability.
Bringing It All Together
Despite all the available information around negotiation tactics, the fact is that 95% of the game is in knowing the basics (especially when you’re talking to an engineer).
However, if you or your drainage engineer views Council approvals as mere compliance issue, your approved drainage plans may end up satisfying all of the Council’s preferences and none of yours!
You might be inadvertently leaving untold thousands of dollars on the table because the approach to authority management was one of compliance rather than one of negotiation.
If you are looking for structural and drainage design engineers for your next unit, townhouse or multi-dwelling development, please get in contact with us so we can provide you with a comprehensive fee proposal for our services. We look forward to partnering with you on your next project.
