Recently I was discussing the common Council Contributions that apply to multiple dwelling applications. One fee that also applies to some development applications is the Metropolitan Planning Levy. This fee is a little different to the others as it is required to be paid to...
In recent months the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) have introduced some new processes. Two that are of particular interest are the change in the Notice of Decision process and an increased likelihood that Councils will have to reimburse applicants fees for failure hearings. New Process...
What many restaurants, cafes and other eateries that want to serve alcohol on their premises don’t know is that obtaining a liquor licence is a two-step process. First, they need to get a planning permit from the Council before applying for a liquor licence from...
At Change of Plan, I've had a lot of people ask me why they run into trouble when they put in a planning application to build an extra unit or house on a block of land that has a separately approved garage/carport in the frontage. Recently,...
On the 31st of July the State Government introduced changes to the bushfire planning regulations to give greater certainty to landowners in bushfire prone areas. The key changes include: Greater certainty to build, extend or replace a dwelling in land that has a residentially focused zoning...
One issue discussed in the Panel report was the appropriateness of the proposed zones in some areas. The basis of many of the submissions, and therefore of consideration to the Panel was whether the proposed restrictive Neighbourhood Residential Zone was appropriate. The Panel consider that the use of this zone had not been justified sufficiently and that the criteria used to make decisions on the zone have not been appropriate in all instances. In particular they were not supportive of using this zone simply because of single dwelling covenants or stormwater management issues in the area.
