Kingston City Council are currently undergoing a consultation process as part of developing the new housing and planning rules for the municipality. More details on the draft strategies and the drop in sessions can be found here. Following initial research and consultation, the Kingston Council have prepared a draft Housing Strategy and Neighbourhood Character Study. … Read more
Frankston Council are currently exhibiting a planning scheme amendment (C127) to introduce specified public open space contribution rates for the municipality. You can read more about the proposal here. A public open space contribution is required to be paid to the Council for any non-exempt subdivisions. The contribution is either a percentage of the site … Read more
Going through the process of town planning approval to build townhouses or units on your land and subdividing them can be a complex and lengthy process. Many land owners that we speak to want to know if they can just subdivide the land, or at least subdivide first. This may be due to budget constraints, … Read more
I thought I would share a couple of things to considering when purchasing a property with an approved planning permit already on it. This post is especially relevant when you are considering a site for a multi unit development. Of course there are many checks and balances that you will need to do, including a … Read more
The Activity Centre Zone is a zone that has been created to facilitate development and land use planning within an activity centre. Unlike most other zones, the types of uses allowed are determined by the Council, which allows for a bespoke planning control, unique for the activity centre. The Activity Centre Zone is used to … Read more
In a recent project of ours the idea of equitable development has arisen. Equitable development is the concept of not unreasonably impacting on the development potential of other properties. It is more likely to be considered in areas where a high level of development and change is anticipated. Many recent proposals where equitable development has … Read more
As part of the Government’s plan to reform town planning, the Residential Zones were amended recently. The changes flow from the review of the residential zones that were started in November 2015. Whoever said that planning doesn’t move fast?! Summary of Changes Transitional provisions have been introduced with the planning controls. This means that the new … Read more
There have been a number of changes to the Bushfire Management Overlay and Clause 52.47 (Planning For Bushfire), particularly in relation to applications in established urban areas. Recently I had an application in Seaford (Frankston City Council) that allowed me to experience what the recent changes mean in a practical sense. The first thing I … Read more
Bayside City Council are looking to introduce a major change to their residential planning controls. Amendment C140 has been prepared and is currently on exhibition. In particular the Amendment seeks to make changes to the Neighbourhood Residential Zone as follows: A minimum lot size of 400m2 for subdivision Increase in the amount of private open … Read more
As part of the residential zone amendment process at Moreland Council we put forward a submission to revise the Council’s original Neighbourhood Character Zone to a Residential Growth Zone for a client’s property in Pascoe Vale. We argued that the residential site was well placed for higher density housing given its location on the periphery of a shopping … Read more