15 Dec Town Planning Research Tools
Town planning research is important to get your town planning project off the ground. To assist people on the start of their development journey I thought it would be useful for me to tell you about some of the tools and tips that I use for initial research.
Finding the Planning Controls
The first thing I always check is the planning controls. The easiest way to do that is online, though that information will also be in the Section 32 if you check that.
Planning controls for all addresses can be searched up with the state government’s mapping tool called VicPlan . You can find out the Zone and Overlay details of any property. You can also create a planning property report and look up the title details as well as explore other mapping information such as bushfire and aboriginal cultural heritage sensitivity areas.
Once you know what the Zone and Overlays over a property are, you will then need to read up on what that means. I have written some information on the common Residential Zones as well as on common Overlays which you can check out. For details on the specific controls for your site you can go here to view all Planning Schemes Online. You can also click on the Zones and Overlays that come up on your map and you will be taken straight to that specific control.
Virtual Site Check
Once I understand the planning controls I like to look at an aerial photograph of the site. I typically use a subscription service for my aerials as this gives me access to very recent photographs, however often the information that you can see on Google Maps is sufficient. The streetview feature in Google Maps is also really handy to allow you to “walk” around the area.
Using my aerial photographs I can do approximate measurements. I can measure the distance to features of the area or the width of a setback on site, for example. I can also look at the Melways Map to see what facilities or other uses are located nearby.
Planning Permit History
Another thing that I often check is if there is any planning permit history.
To get the most complete picture of town planning permit history for a site the best thing would be to contact the local council directly and speak with the planning department. However, this is time consuming and not all councils will be available or willing to handle your information request in a timely manner.
To assist with these problems many councils now have a planning register available on their website.
Having an online planning register allows people to search up previous planning applications themselves, which also frees up council time. Depending on when the council started the online register all historical information may not be available, but usually at least the last 15 years or so is available, which can give you a good picture of the area. This means that you can research on the planning history for specific site or an area in your own time. You could then supplement this online review with a direct approach for those sites you have narrowed down.
Town Planning Research in Practice
I have put these research tips to good use many times when investigating potential sites for clients. Just the other day I was able to identify that a property that was currently being advertised as having potential for three double storey townhouses and had a current planning application had a murky past. A review of planning history for the site identified that a planning permit for three dwellings had been refused twice and that the new planning application had not been progressed significantly yet. This isn’t to say that the property is not capable of development, but before considering it further I would want to know more about the past refusals and how the new application was different. What the research did was provide information and negotiation leverage for my client if they decided to consider this property further.
These are some of tools that we use daily when considering properties, responding to clients and researching sites for our Expert Planning Advice service. If you need some help with property research we are here to help!