Forming Meaningful Attachments
The increasing complexity of information requirements for planning permit applications makes for some lengthy uploading times when lodging applications or responding to requests for further information.
One Planner's Archive
Discussion Papers & Articles
Stage 4 Lockdown: Councils & VCAT
VCAT has confirmed that, although they remain closed to the public, it is business as ‘Covid-usual’. They will continue to receive and process new applications as well as hear matters remotely, as scheduled. Most Council planning departments have already moved to a ‘working from home model’
VCAT Reforms in 2020
On 1 July 2020 the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) announced new initiatives as part of its Planning and Environmental Division (PED) reforms. The reforms are part of the PED’s digitising processes to transition from existing manual and hardcopy-based systems to digital solutions. VCAT suspended all in-person hearings in March 2020 to safeguard the wellbeing of its staff and the general public and have since implemented telephone and virtual online hearings and conferences.
VCAT approves variation to single dwelling covenant, at last, to make way for new development
Restrictive covenants have long been registered on land titles as a means of controlling land use and development. Some of the most common covenants, applicants seek to remove (or vary), are ‘single dwelling’ restrictions that prohibit development of land with more than one dwelling.
Residential Solar Panel Confusion
In late 2018, under Amendment VC149, the State Government changed Clauses 54 and 55 and included new Decision Guidelines requiring consideration of the impact of overshadowing from new development, on existing rooftop solar energy systems, on neighbouring lots in residential zones.
Understanding how Council’s plan for housing growth & use residential zones
he State Government has recently released two new Planning Practice notes that provide practitioners with interesting insight in how Council planners are encouraged to apply neighbourhood character considerations and assess application for change.
The Importance of Trees
In July 2019 The Age newspaper published an article concerning the decline of trees in Metropolitan Melbourne, using research findings from a study by RMIT University. The article reported that in the 5 years between 2014 and 2018, a total of approximately 2000 hectares of tree cover was lost from the city.
CHMP: Small Lot Exemptions
Can a large development site, made up of multiple small lots, utilise the ‘small lot exemptions’ contained in the Aboriginal Heritage regulations? This question was put to VCAT in Hartland Group Pty Ltd v Mornington Peninsula SC [2018] VCAT 1722 VCAT. The following provides a summary of the Tribunal’s findings:
Christmas Notification Blackouts
Once again, at this time of year Councils across the state will implement ‘blackout periods’, restricting the advertising of planning applications over the holiday season. The dates and restrictions of the ‘blackouts’ vary significantly from Council to Council.
Multiple Small Lots & CHMP Exemptions
Clause 1 recently provided readers with the findings of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal) in relation to what constituted “a lot”, when calculating the total Garden area. The decision in Clayton Gardens Pty Ltd v Monash CC [2019] VCAT 1138 found that: