Major overhaul to Rescode, Activity Centre Planning and Plan for Victoria all announced this week

The ‘deemed to comply’ standards operate across the following VPP clauses:

• Detached Home Code: one dwelling per lot, or a second smaller dwelling (clause 54).
• Townhouse and Low-Rise Code: two or more residential dwellings on a lot (clause 55).
• Four Storey Apartment Code: two or more dwellings on a lot, and residential buildings up to four storeys (new clause 57).

The new provisions for clauses 55 and 57 will be gazetted in early March and in operation by the end of March, while the new clause 54 will be gazetted at the end of April. 

Detached Home Code

New ‘deemed to comply’ standards will be included in the new clause 54, together with the conversion of remaining discretionary standards to ‘deemed to comply’ standards.

Townhouse and Low-Rise Code

The 'Townhouse and Low-Rise Code' (Low RiseCode), contained at clause 55 of the planning scheme, will streamline the approval process for duplexes, townhouses and apartment buildings up to three storeys.  

While the full Code will not be released until early March, the Government has provided some detail of what it entails, including revised standards to protect neighbourhood character for setbacks, tree canopy, open space, dwelling diversity and overshadowing and new liveability and sustainability standards that build upon the BADS provisions that apply to multi-unit development. 

Details of the new standards can be found on the Department of Transport and Planning website (link).

Key changes to the ‘neighbourhood character’ cluster of standards include:

• Front setback – Standard B2-1 – reduced front setback from 9m to 6m. Further, it will no longer be the average of the two adjoining properties. You may take the benefit of the lesser setback of an abutting dwelling.
• Rear and side setback  – B2-3  – the ability to choose from two options  – either existing B17 standard or a new side and rear setback standard that allows a northern boundary set back of 3m up to a building height of 11m and 4.5m for a building height over 11m and from the southern boundary a set back 6m up to a building height of 11m and 9m for a height over 11 metres.
• Site coverage – Change from 60 per cent in all residential zones to: 60 per cent  – Neighbourhood Residential Zone & Township Zone; 65 per cent  – General Residential Zone; 70 per cent – Residential Growth Zone, Mixed Use Zone and Housing Choice and Transport Zone.
• Access  – New requirement to protect existing street trees by requiring the location of a vehicle crossover or accessway to not encroach the tree protection zone of any tree in a road by more than 10 per cent;
• Tree canopy  – New tree canopy cover requirement of 10 per cent site area up to 1000m² and 20 per cent of site area more than 1000m². Existing trees can be used to meet the requirement.

New liveability standards include:

• Dwelling diversity  – New standard B3-1 will require development with more than 10 dwellings to provide a diversity of housing by providing at least:
  • one dwelling that contains a kitchen, bath or shower, bedroom and a toilet and wash basin at ground floor level for every 10 dwellings.
  • one dwelling that includes no more and no less than two bedrooms for every 10 dwellings.
  • one dwelling that includes no more and no less than three bedrooms for every 10 dwellings.
• Private open space  – Reduced from 40m² to 25m² at ground level
• Functional layout – New standard B3-7 will apply the minimum apartment bedroom and living room dimensions to all dwellings. New B3-8 applies the minimum apartment room depth requirements to all dwellings and B3-10 applies the natural ventilation requirements to all dwellings. 

Amenity standards include:

• overshadowing standard B4-3 – reduces the allowable overshadowing to 50 per cent; and
• internal views standard amended to no longer apply to bedrooms. 

The new clause 57 (Apartment Code) will apply to two or more dwellings on a lot and residential buildings up to four storeys. There will be new deemed to comply standards as well as discretionary assessment based on the operation of the former clause 55, using metrics of the new deemed to comply standards. 

Developments must meet all objectives within each ‘group’ of standards to take the benefit of the deemed to comply system. Where a standard from clause 54, 55, or 57 is met, the development is ‘deemed to comply’ to that extent, meaning the council cannot consider any other matters (such as the decision guidelines or section 60 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic)) for that standard. Where a standard is not met, the council can only consider matters set out in the decision guidelines for that standard. 

In the event that all applicable standards from the relevant clause are met, there will no third party notice or appeal rights, meaning that residents will not be able to appeal a development that has been ‘deemed to comply’ with the Code. 

If there is a standard that is not met, both council and objectors will be confined to considerations relevant to only those standards that are not met. 

Where there are other overlays, such as heritage or flood, developments will still have to address permit triggers under those overlays and address relevant matters in decision guidelines in addition to the Code.

Any applications that have already been lodged will be assessed under the current clause 55 provisions. However, if an applicant wishes to withdraw and re-lodge in April, there is a plan to reform the Metropolitan Planning Levy legislation so that an application can take the benefit or get a credit from the earlier lodgement fee. 

Developments that are commenced using existing permits will need to comply with any conditions that implement the former standards and will not be able to take the benefit of the new clause without, presumably, lodging a s72 Amendment, but the detail of the transitional arrangements are yet to be sighted. 

Currently, the Victorian Government estimates that it takes about five months on average for residential planning applications to be assessed, with obviously much longer wait times where appeals are lodged at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Government is hoping that the fast-tracking via the deemed to comply process could clear nearly two-thirds of the planning backlog.

The Government have also flagged further future changes to planning rules that would make it easier for landowners to subdivide property to accommodate multi-unit developments. A further code is also being developed for apartments four to six storeys high.

The Government has also released, in tandem with the new Codes, new housing targets for all municipalities. The intention of the targets is to ensure every planning scheme identifies sufficient realistic opportunities for new development to deliver the targets. It is understood that the targets have been based on modelling that will be released and will be made available as a platform for councils so that they can measure capacity in their municipalities and so that there is consistency of approach to the measurement across Victoria. 

It is understood that the intention is for the targets to be incorporated into Plan for Victoria and subsequently into each Scheme. 

In a further development this week, the Planning Minister has announced the next tranche of Activity Centres, including five that will be Train and Tram Zone Activity Centres (Caulfield, Springvale, Noble Park, Yarraman and Dandenong stations) and three that are centred around busy tram lines, namely High Street Thornbury, St Georges Road Thornbury and Kew Junction. Other Activity Centres based around train stations in this tranche include: 

• Frankston line –Glen Huntly, Ormond, Bentleigh (neighbourhood centre only) and Mentone;
• Sandringham line  – South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor and Elsternwick;
• Alamein line  – Ashburton, Riversdale and Willison. These stations will be classified as neighbourhood activity centres to plan for more modest growth;
• Glen Waverley line  – East Malvern and Holmesglen;
• Upfield line  – Coburg and Brunswick; and
• Hurstbridge line  – Heidelberg. 

New planning controls were gazetted that will apply to the Activity Centres, namely a new Built Form Overlay, and a new zone called the Housing Choices and Transport Zone, which will apply to the ‘walkable catchments’ of each Activity Centre. 

The locations of train and tram zones were chosen based on an analysis of transport capacity, access to jobs and services, and environmental considerations. 

In a final announcement for what has been a busy week, the Premier and the Minister for Planning launched the final Plan for Victoria, in Ballarat today (28 February). This follows some months of community and industry group consultation on the draft plan. 

Plan for Victoria is a 30-year plan centred around five pillars: housing for all Victorians, accessible jobs and services, great places, sustainable environments, and self-determination and caring for Country. 

The Plan is intended to be very ‘action-oriented’. It includes 22 actions, such as:

• implementing housing targets for every Victorian local government area;
• implementing new controls to streamline planning in activity centres;
• incentivising more social and affordable homes across the state;
• designing and building better quality homes and apartments; and
• protecting tree canopies and introducing minimum open space requirements in planning.

The Plan includes detailed maps to show where more housing can go, based on modelling that will be made available to councils. 

The Plan will replace the existing metropolitan strategy Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 and other regional growth plans and was formulated following the Victorian Government’s most extensive community-led consultation.

One of the key outcomes of the Plan is developing regional growth boundaries for Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo to manage outward growth and encourage more homes in the centre of these regional towns. The Victorian Government predicts that more than 200,000 additional homes will go to these regional hubs over the next 30 years, increasing the importance of settlement boundaries and managing growth.