28 Apr Refusal Again for Bayside Council
The Minister for Planning has refused three of Bayside Council’s recent planning scheme amendments. Amendments C113, C114 and C115 were proposing to introduce mandatory maximum height controls within the Sandringham, Church Street and Bay Street activity centres.
In January 2015 the Planning Panel appointed to consider all submissions on the Amendments recommended that the Amendments be abandoned. They found that there was no case for mandatory maximum heights. The existing planning scheme provisions provides details of preferred heights including robust performance measures for applications seeking to vary these requirements and the Panel considered that this is the appropriate control mechanisms for the activity centres.
Based on the Panel’s recommendation to abandon, it is not surprising that the Amendments have been refused by the Minister.
This is not the first time either that Bayside’s bid for mandatory height controls has been quashed. Only a couple of years ago the Council sought to introduce these mandatory height controls into the activity centres, while introducing the planning controls for the activity centres. The mandatory height controls were not supported by the Planning Panel then, and this was discussed again with the new Planning Panel report.
The decision to refuse the Amendments is appropriate and in line with the existing performance based model for planning generally in Victoria. Though given the recent introduction of manadatory garden area controls by the Minister, Bayside Council could be forgiven for any surprise!