Thursday, 2 May 2019

Planning policy

In reply to Mr HAYES (Southern Metropolitan) (30 April 2019)

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Resources):

We do not concede that local planning policies are being disregarded, in decision making or that property developers are favoured over local communities and residential amenity in planning decisions.

This government supports the rights of communities to set mandatory height controls in their neighbourhoods, where such heights are strategically justified. The Minister for Planning provided greater certainty to these communities through recent planning reforms, including the changes to the residential zones and the Activity Centre Pilot Program.

The reforms to the residential zones came into effect on 27 March 2017, where he introduced mandatory heights into the Neighbourhood Residential Zone and the General Residential Zone, which together cover approximately 43 per cent of metropolitan Melbourne. The reforms also gave councils the ability to specify mandatory height controls in the Residential Growth Zone, Mixed Use Zone and Township Zone.

Further to this, in September 2018 the Minister for Planning released findings from the Activity Centre Pilot Program and amended planning guidance about the application of mandatory height controls in activity centres. The pilot program found that mandatory controls can deliver clarity, certainty and consistency in outcomes for building height within activity centres.

Current state planning guidance provides clear direction to councils, and outlines the level of strategic work to be undertaken to support mandatory building heights in activity centres. The guidance states that mandatory provisions are appropriate only where it can be clearly demonstrated that discretionary provisions are insufficient to achieve desired development outcomes. It is at the discretion of councils to request mandatory height controls, and to justify if their application is appropriate.

Following requests from councils, the Minister for Planning recently determined that interim mandatory height controls were appropriate for several activity centres on an interim basis, including Moonee Ponds (Moonee Valley), Ivanhoe (Banyule), Johnston Street (Yarra), Bentleigh, Carnegie, Elsternwick (Glen Eira) and Sorrento (Mornington Peninsula).

This was to allow an orderly planning process to be undertaken to implement the council’s adopted structure plans on a permanent basis and ensure that development in the intervening period did not compromise the liveability of the centre and prevent the permanent controls from having their full effect.

VCAT is an independent body designed to provide fair and efficient dispute resolution outcomes. VCAT considers development applications on their planning merits, taking into account the views of the communities involved, the Planning and Environment Act 1987, and the planning scheme including local policies. It is VCAT’s role to balance competing objectives and policies to achieve net community benefit. Indeed section 84B of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 requires that VCAT acting as the decision maker take into account and give effect to both state and local planning policies of the basis of section 7(4) which clearly puts in place a hierarchy of policies to ensure a co-ordinated planning outcome.