21 May Planning Assessments For Apartments
Did you know, certain types of apartment building developments will require assessment against a different set of design standards than Clause 55?
This is important because if you are looking to develop this type of project you want to make sure your team understands and can assess the correct standards.
Apartment Developments
The Apartment Developments Standards at Clause 58 were introduced a while back. These Standards have additional controls to ensure adequate internal amenity for the proposed apartments.
Apartment buildings have some different considerations and some of the standards that require unique consideration for apartment buildings are:
- Noise Impacts: While this is also an assessment in smaller residential developments under Clause 55, there is greater potential for noise impacts within an apartment building and therefore more consideration and most likely an acoustic assessment will be required.
- Functional layout: The Apartment Design Standards have specified minimum internal dimensions for bedrooms and living spaces to ensure that the apartments will be functional for future residents.
- Room depth: To provide sufficient daylight penetration into habitable rooms, requirements on the room depth based on the ceiling height for rooms that have a window on one side only has been specified.
- Daylight access: Providing external windows to all habitable rooms is preferred, but not always possible. The standard allows for bedrooms to have access to daylight via a smaller secondary space and provides minimum specifications for this.
The Apartment Standards also provide different requirements for some of the standards that you may be familiar with such as private open space provision and storage..The requirements of these elements are based on the size/type of each dwelling and should be calculated as the design progresses to ensure it is accommodated.
Another major part of the Apartment Design Standards is that new proposals must consider the urban context and physical environment around them, to a greater degree than is generally required for Clause 55 applications.
When Does Clause 58 Apartment Developments Apply?
For apartment buildings of five or more storeys (not including basement levels) in the residential zones.
For all apartment buildings in commercial and activity centre zones.
Additionally, Clause 55 also includes additional requirements that are just for apartment developments.
If you are looking to develop an apartment building it is important to make sure your team is familiar with the right requirements for the type and location of apartment building you are proposing early on, to avoid wasting time on designs that won’t comply.