Continuing the State Government’s recent attempts at streaming the planning process, Ministerial Amendment VC050 to the Victorian Planning Provisions (VPPs) was gazetted on 15 December last year. Whilst the amendment makes a number of minor changes to the VPPs, the most significant new provisions relate to residential aged care facilities.
Under the new provisions, a residential age care facility becomes a Section 1 (planning permit not required) use within the Residential, Mixed Use and Township Zones. The amendment also introduces additional policy support for the construction of residential age care facility at Clause 16.06 of the State Planning Policies and a land use definition at Clause 74 which reads as follows:
Residential aged care facility:
Land used to provide accommodation and personal or nursing care for the aged. It may include recreational, health or laundry facilities and services for residents of the facility.
Amendment VC050 is an obvious response to issues associated with Victoria’s aging population and the Government estimates that by 2021, an additional 24,400 residential aged care places will be required.
It is considered that amendment VC050 will assist applicants seeking to change the use of an existing building to a residential aged care facility. However, it is Clause:1’s opinion that the change will not result in any substantial time or cost savings associated with an application to develop land for the purposes of a Residential Aged Care Facility. In support of this assertion we note that all of the affected zones (R1Z, R2Z, R3Z, MUZ and TZ) contain planning permit triggers to construct or extend a residential building (including an aged care facility).
So, although VC050 is a step in the right direction, if your clients are seeking to build or extend a new Agedd care facility it will be pretty-much business as usual for the planning permit process.
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Last updated 040409