Hello,
for us, it’s already too late (the shell of the house is built), but I’m curious how you dealt with this when the houses on the neighboring lots were not yet built. Did you try to estimate the positions of your neighbors’ houses during the planning? Were you able to stay somewhat flexible, or did you simply plan based on the current state of the lots with the mindset “whatever happens, happens, it can’t be changed anyway”?
We tried to orient ourselves mainly by the cardinal directions, topography, and the landscape. But in the end, future neighbors could still block almost all of our sources of natural light and views.
The houses must maintain at least the minimum setback distances, but garages are allowed to be placed anywhere.
Regards
for us, it’s already too late (the shell of the house is built), but I’m curious how you dealt with this when the houses on the neighboring lots were not yet built. Did you try to estimate the positions of your neighbors’ houses during the planning? Were you able to stay somewhat flexible, or did you simply plan based on the current state of the lots with the mindset “whatever happens, happens, it can’t be changed anyway”?
We tried to orient ourselves mainly by the cardinal directions, topography, and the landscape. But in the end, future neighbors could still block almost all of our sources of natural light and views.
The houses must maintain at least the minimum setback distances, but garages are allowed to be placed anywhere.
Regards
W
willWohnen27 Jan 2015 16:18Amazing, calling it a bit of luck is a severe understatement. :-) An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime. You’ll be able to enjoy it for a long time and share the story.
Unfortunately, we had to pick the best from the remaining “leftovers.” And that wasn’t easy at all. If you’ve never done this before, you have to walk around and think a lot to even figure out the pros and cons.
Unfortunately, we had to pick the best from the remaining “leftovers.” And that wasn’t easy at all. If you’ve never done this before, you have to walk around and think a lot to even figure out the pros and cons.
W
willWohnen28 Jan 2015 15:54Hello,
this thread has drifted somewhat towards small talk. (Which was interesting as well.)
Maybe someone else would like to directly address the initial question? :-)
Have you tried to include neighboring houses that are already built or still pending in your planning?
this thread has drifted somewhat towards small talk. (Which was interesting as well.)
Maybe someone else would like to directly address the initial question? :-)
Have you tried to include neighboring houses that are already built or still pending in your planning?
Of course, we take the neighboring houses that are already standing into account. For us, it’s straightforward because we have an empty plot between existing houses. On the right and left sides, there are neighbors, but the property directly behind our garden is designated as garden land and cannot be built on 😀. So, there are no direct views into our garden or anything like that from other neighbors.
I’m not quite sure I fully understand the question... especially in new housing developments, the zoning or planning regulations are usually quite strict, and there are often building setbacks or building envelopes set out, so you know where a neighbor is allowed to place their house. A view from large south-facing living room windows onto a garage isn’t ideal, of course, but it’s still better than looking directly into someone else’s living room. In that case, I’d just plant a nice hedge along the property boundary, and suddenly, you’re looking at a green wall instead of a gray garage 😎.
I’m not quite sure I fully understand the question... especially in new housing developments, the zoning or planning regulations are usually quite strict, and there are often building setbacks or building envelopes set out, so you know where a neighbor is allowed to place their house. A view from large south-facing living room windows onto a garage isn’t ideal, of course, but it’s still better than looking directly into someone else’s living room. In that case, I’d just plant a nice hedge along the property boundary, and suddenly, you’re looking at a green wall instead of a gray garage 😎.
Panama17 schrieb:
I would put a nice hedge or something along the property line, and boom, you’re looking at a green wall instead of a gray garage 😎.That’s how we did it too, and it was part of the plan!
Although there was no neighboring house yet, only the row of bungalows behind the garden, I immediately considered the garden with the sun’s position (-> future tree planting).
Whether a neighbor’s house is built or not—I wanted to frame our house with greenery, little highlights here and there, visible from the sofa or other sight lines. The bungalows further back (behind our south garden) are hidden by several planted bushes and trees.
Everything was planned and went well until then...
Then, suddenly, the house to the west of us appeared while we were just marking out the plot... When we moved in, the neighbors installed their large double carport right at the property boundary...
I think the hedge will need about three years to hide that carport. Now we hear car doors closing in the evening while sitting on the sofa whenever the neighbors come home 🙁.
The roof peak blocks the sun on our terrace from 7 p.m. onwards. For me, during summer, that works like an alarm clock to finally get up from the lounger and start preparing dinner 🙂
This summer, I’m going to place two extra loungers in a hedge corner facing southeast—there we’ll still get some late sun 😀
I think it could be worse! On our site, it was decided on which side the driveway should be built, and 99% of people end up building their carport exactly there. The size and placement preferences for buildings, close to the front building line, are similar throughout new developments, so you can usually estimate until when you’ll have sun in the house or on the terrace.
Best regards, Yvonne
W
willWohnen28 Jan 2015 17:47Hello,
@Panama17: What you said about building envelopes is only partly correct. You can exceed or ignore them, but you must maintain the minimum distance from the house to the property boundary (in our case 4m (13 feet)), get approval from the city (for example, we exceed the building envelope at three corners of the house because we oriented the house differently to face south than the building envelope allows), and you pay a higher fee for the square meters outside the building envelope (I don’t remember what fees exactly those were).
In our development, the plots and building envelopes are quite large, so individual owners already have a lot of flexibility. Driveways and garages are not fixed at all.
What worries me most is the future garage of our east neighbor. Their plot is twice as large as all the others, so someone with enough money will surely build a double garage with a gabled roof. Since their house will be located much further south on their property due to its size, the only question is whether they attach the garage to one or the other property boundary—and if it ends up on our boundary, the garage will be positioned so that we look at it from our living room and garden. Right now, the plot is still empty and we see fields with rising hills and forests behind them. :-(
@ypg: Yes, that’s the approach I’m comforting myself with as well. In the worst case, in the long term, I’ll plant a green, fairly tall hedge around the garden, so at least I’ll always look at some kind of nature, even if it’s shaded. It’s just a shame about the great view, which we still hope for now. :-)
@Panama17: What you said about building envelopes is only partly correct. You can exceed or ignore them, but you must maintain the minimum distance from the house to the property boundary (in our case 4m (13 feet)), get approval from the city (for example, we exceed the building envelope at three corners of the house because we oriented the house differently to face south than the building envelope allows), and you pay a higher fee for the square meters outside the building envelope (I don’t remember what fees exactly those were).
In our development, the plots and building envelopes are quite large, so individual owners already have a lot of flexibility. Driveways and garages are not fixed at all.
What worries me most is the future garage of our east neighbor. Their plot is twice as large as all the others, so someone with enough money will surely build a double garage with a gabled roof. Since their house will be located much further south on their property due to its size, the only question is whether they attach the garage to one or the other property boundary—and if it ends up on our boundary, the garage will be positioned so that we look at it from our living room and garden. Right now, the plot is still empty and we see fields with rising hills and forests behind them. :-(
@ypg: Yes, that’s the approach I’m comforting myself with as well. In the worst case, in the long term, I’ll plant a green, fairly tall hedge around the garden, so at least I’ll always look at some kind of nature, even if it’s shaded. It’s just a shame about the great view, which we still hope for now. :-)
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