The committee appointed to ‘investigate’ the proposed new zones has had its report finally made public – together with the government’s response. A quick perusal of the documents indicates that nothing major has changed. What is unique about this ‘consultation’ is that there were 2,083 SUBMISSIONS – surely a record! It’s also worth noting that at the last parliamentary sitting the government promised to table ALL submissions by February 5th. Yesterday’s Hansard records a letter from Matthew Guy which states in part: “Regrettably, the Government is not able to respond to the Council’s resolution within the time period requested by the Council. The Government will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.”!!!
We urge all residents to read the documents contained in the Media Release below since it is a foregone conclusion that Glen Eira Council’s mandatory ‘consultation’ process will be the typical rubber stamping process that has occurred time and time again.
Reformed residential zones bringing new certainty to Melbourne’s neighbourhoods
Tuesday, 05 March 2013
Sweeping reforms of residential planning zones are one step closer as Planning Minister Matthew Guy announced the Victorian Coalition Government’s final details on the reform of Victoria’s residential planning zones.
After a detailed consultation process with over 2,000 submissions from individuals, businesses, councils and community groups, the Coalition Government will now establish the three reformed residential zones on 1 July this year.
A key feature will be the new Neighbourhood Residential Zone which will be the strictest planning zone in Australia, aimed at protecting existing suburbs’ neighbourhood character.
“The Coalition Government’s reforms to residential zones reflect what communities have been calling for, for many years – certainty for neighbourhoods and protection from inappropriate development,” Mr Guy said.
“These reforms will protect what Melburnians love about Melbourne. Our streetscapes, our amenity and our liveability which are too valuable to ignore.
“At the same time the new zones will clearly define the appropriate locations where growth and density should occur,” Mr Guy said.
The Coalition Government’s Ministerial Advisory Council (MAC) on zone reform has suggested a number of improvements to the residential zones as initially proposed last year, to ensure the protection of community amenity and provide clearer rules and greater certainty for the community.
“The improvements recommended by the MAC further protect residential amenity and neighbourhood character and are supported by the Coalition Government,” Mr Guy said.
“Today’s announcement is about the right development in the right locations and the package of residential zones will deliver this for local communities.”
The new Neighbourhood Residential Zone will provide the strongest protections for local neighbourhood character for the first time in Victoria’s planning history. Key features of the zone include:
- implementing local neighbourhood character policy to provide increased weight to local planning policy;
- limiting increased residential development through lot size restrictions; and
- providing an eight metre mandatory height limit.
In contrast, the Residential Growth Zone will be applied in areas determined appropriate for increased growth and density and provide for medium density developments.
Minor commercial uses will be permitted in the Residential Growth Zone to provide additional local services to the population, subject to strict conditions.
“Local communities will now know and clearly understand where growth can and will occur, unlike the previous haphazard approach that was allowed to foster under the previous Labor Government,” Mr Guy said.
“Importantly, these zones will be at the discretion of local council and it will predominately be the view of the local community that informs which zone should be applied where.”
The Coalition Government will work with local councils between March and May to further develop the implementation procedures and criteria. The Department of Planning and Community Development will also provide technical assistance to local council’s in implementing the residential zones.
Implementation of the residential zones will commence on 1 July 2013 and will be completed over a 12 month period.
A copy of the MAC report and the Coalition Government’s response can be found at: www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/planning/reszones
PS: An email from a reader –
Glen Eira Debates 
March 6, 2013 at 12:53 PM
The “proposed” changes to the previous proposal are pure spin. All three “new” key features were in the previous proposal – nothing has changed. In the face of an unprecedented no. of submissions opposing the reforms absolutely zip has happened to modify the changes except that Govt has backed down on it’s willingness to publish the submissions. In sufficient time is pure and utter bullsh*t – if copies can be presented to the reviewers why can’t compies be presented to Parliament and the Public
March 6, 2013 at 1:56 PM
Ask your local Members of Parliament, that is why they are there for or next time vote for those who care for their residents.
March 6, 2013 at 2:31 PM
We’ve gone through the MAC report and below are some extracts which we believe are the most significant. Our concern is:
(1) the devil is in the detail of course and that means the Schedules that each council will introduce to accompany the various residential/mixed use zones. The schedules will include height limits, etc.
(2) Much of the final pages of the report suggest that some councils who have already done their “homework” (read Glen Eira’s claims on this) will have no trouble in slotting the new zones into their Planning Schemes. The problem with this of course is that the current inequity of Housing Diversity/Minimal Change will be transposed directly. Further, with the mooted fast track amendment processes, this council will still be relying on data that is close to 20 years old and that were the basis for the Housing Diversity/Minimal Change areas. The extent of community consultation on these zones (and we expect that Housing Diversity will expand) is crucial. However, we warn residents to BE ALARMED and be prepared to voice a view.
Here are the extracts –
On the other hand, the Committee notes that the Residential Growth Zone is intended to accommodate the most significant redevelopment of the new residential zones and inevitably, that change will be different to the existing built form and settlement pattern that currently exists. On that basis, the Committee believes that specifying a neighbourhood character purpose or objectives will be contrary to what this zone is trying to achieve.
The Committee believes that it is appropriate to reduce the existing restrictions on some forms of commercial uses in some areas. Where non-residential uses require a permit, the merits and impacts of each application must be assessed by council. The Committee acknowledges that where no permit is required, there can be no assessment of the
planning merits so the introduction of as-of-right uses must be carefully considered. Uses such as place of worship, medical centre and convenience shop have a direct link to residential uses and could, if appropriately controlled, be located within residential areas.
This is a continuation of the approach in the current residential zones.
The recommended changes place further conditions on as-of-right uses such as requiring the site to adjoin a road zone (a major road), meeting the car parking requirements of clause 52.06 and restricting the use to be located within an existing building.
In the Residential Growth Zone, office has been moved from an as-of-right use to a permit required use and with a floorspace limit of 250 square metres as a condition. (but shops, places of worship, etc. stay at 100 sqaure metres and no permit. If conditions aren’t met there can still be application for permit and individual council decision)
The Committee recommends reducing the maximum building height for a dwelling or residential building to eight metres in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, allowing the height to increase to nine metres on sloping sites. The zone is designed to be the most restrictive in terms of expectations of residential development and built form outcomes.
The intent of this reduction recognises the special characteristics of the Neighbourhood Residential Zone and its purpose of recognising areas of single and double storey residential development. The schedule to the zone allows councils to specify a maximum building height higher or lower than eight metres providing councils with the flexibility to change the height limit where justified.
The Committee recommends varying the preferred maximum building height for dwellings and residential buildings in the Residential Growth Zone from 12.5 metres to 13.5 metres. This equates to a three or four storey building in keeping with the zone purposes but provides for improved internal amenity and greater design flexibility.
No changes were made to the building height provisions in the General Residential Zone, Township Zone and Mixed Use Zone. Therefore, the ResCode building height requirements continue to apply in these zones.
The Committee recommends varying the preferred maximum building height for a dwelling and residential buildings in the Residential Growth Zone from 12.5 metres to 13.5 metres. This equates to a three storey building with a pitched roof, or four storey building in keeping with the zone
purposes. The schedule to the zone can vary this height and require a mandatory building height. To protect the amenity of dwellings on abutting residential zones, the varied zone provision requires any development that abuts another residential zone to meet the setback and amenity requirements of ResCode similar to the provisions of the Mixed Use
Zone.
The Committee recommends mandatory building heights for the Neighbourhood Residential Zone and an eight metre height limit for a level site to limit dwellings and residential buildings to a two storey height. The proposed schedule to the zone allows a council to specify a different height.
Each of the new as-of-right uses contains a condition that the floor area must not exceed either 250 square metres or 150 square metres. The Committee believes that the setting of floorspace caps on non-residential uses will assist in controlling the amenity impacts. The Committee does not recommend any changes to the uses that are as-of-right in the Mixed Use Zone Councils with an existing housing and development strategy underpinning differing levels of change within their municipality. These councils could consider themselves as “tier 1” and capable of moving quickly to implementation via planning scheme
amendments.