The Amendment is part of the Victorian Government’s Smart Planning program which aims to simplify and modernise Victoria’s planning policy and rules to make planning more efficient, accessible and transparent. VC159 amends all planning schemes to introduce new land use terms, revise the definition of land use terms and change where land use terms are nested.
The changes have been made to:
Changes to land use terms which may be of particular interest to practitioners include:
This change has implications due to the Purpose of the three main residential zones which include, inter alia:
To allow educational……. and a limited range of other non-residential uses to serve local community needs in appropriate locations.
It is also noteworthy that, third-party notification and appeal exemptions in certain zones apply when specified buffer distances are met from education centres (which now explicitly includes child care centres).
Other notable changes include:
Where new land use terms have been made or existing terms altered, these have been included in the relevant Use Table contained in the zones. We recommend that if you are involved in planning permit matters relating to the use of land, that you check the zone provisions to ensure the status of any of the most recent changes.
Updates have also been made to the Bushfire Management Overlay and Airport Environs Overlay to align with the new or altered land use definitions.
‘An application to construct or extend a dwelling or residential building on a lot must provide a minimum garden area as set out in the following table’. The Tribunal considered that
The answer to this second question has been widely-interpreted as meaning, that if applications do not incorporate the required Garden Area – a permit condition cannot be imposed to require compliance. Practitioners need to be aware that such non-compliance may result in applications being summarily refused or struck-out.