Aura and Harmony driveway rules: what the estate guidelines say

If you are building in Aura or Harmony, the driveway is not entirely your call. Both estates run design covenants that sit on top of the council rules, and both steer the street facing finish away from plain grey concrete. The practical consequence is simple: pick the finish early, get it approved before anything is booked, and in Harmony, book the pour before the clock runs out.

Why the estate has a say at all

Aura at Caloundra South sits inside a Priority Development Area, so development there is assessed by Economic Development Queensland rather than the council. On top of that, Stockland requires covenant approval for what you build, driveway included. Harmony at Palmview is an AVID estate with its own design guidelines and a covenant team that signs off the plan. Neither estate’s rules replace the council’s crossover rules, which still apply at the kerb; they add a layer about appearance, position and timing.

The rules are written per release, and they are updated. Everything below is drawn from the published guidelines at the time of writing, so check the design guidelines for your release, and treat what follows as the shape of the rules rather than the letter of yours.

Aura: what the Design Essentials ask for

The Acacia release Design Essentials, which are typical of the estate, cover the driveway in some detail:

• Finish. Plain and painted concrete finishes are not permitted. Decorative finishes are, which in practice means exposed aggregate, coloured concrete or stamped concrete, with some releases also listing pavers.
• Width. A crossover of 4.8 metres for a double garage and 3.0 metres for a single, with villa lots tapering to 3 metres.
• Position. The driveway location is fixed on the block’s Building Envelope Plan, and the guidelines call for an offset from the side boundary (500 millimetres in the releases we have seen).
• The footpath. Where the driveway crosses the estate footpath, the path section is removed and the driveway poured through as one continuous slab rather than patched around it.
• Timing. Driveway and crossover are to be completed before the home is occupied.

Approval runs through Stockland’s covenant process, and it takes time, in our experience around two weeks. That is the reason to settle the finish while the house is still being built rather than at handover.

Harmony: the thirty day rule

Harmony’s guidelines take a different angle. The driveway is a contract item: it is expected to be complete within 30 days of handover. The covenant team needs a site plan showing the driveway’s location, width and materials, and driveway positions marked on the plan of development are mandatory. Undecorated grey broom finished concrete is not permitted on the street, and where the driveway crosses the footpath the path is saw cut so the driveway can be poured as one continuous surface.

Thirty days is not long once you allow for approval, a site measure, scheduling and a pour date that dodges a summer storm. The owners who find it easy are the ones who have the site measure booked before handover and the finish already chosen from sample boards.

Behind the building line

The covenants are about the street. Behind the building line, side paths, service areas and most alfresco slabs are not held to the same finish rule, so broom finished plain concrete is usually fine for a side run, and the alfresco can be whatever suits the house. Check the guidelines for your release; the point is that the finish decision is really a decision about the frontage.

Choosing a finish that gets approved

Of the permitted finishes, exposed aggregate is the one most Aura and Harmony frontages end up with, because it reads as designed rather than poured, it keeps grip in the wet and it hides tyre marks on a surface that will be driven on every day. Coloured concrete, pigment through the full depth of the slab rather than a coating, suits the rendered and cladding exteriors in both estates and sits a little lower in the range. The decision is best made from sample boards against the render in daylight, which is what a site measure is for.

What this means for the quote

A driveway in Aura or Harmony is quoted like any other, per square metre, supplied and laid, with the published ranges on the rates guide. The differences are that the quote names the approved finish, allows for the footpath cut and the continuous pour, and sets the crossover out to the plan rather than to the kerb. Any crossover or covenant approvals your job needs are identified at the site measure, before anything is booked. Location pages for Baringa, Nirimba, Bells Creek and Palmview cover the ground and the housing in each.

Location pages this guide applies to: Baringa, Nirimba, Bells Creek, Palmview, Caloundra.

Sources

• Stockland, Aura Design Essentials guidelines
• AVID Property Group, Harmony design guidelines