The Victorian Coalition Government's sweeping reform of planning zones will return certainty to our suburbs and towns and in particular to councils, residents and the development industry.
"Planning zones are the greatest indicator of the style of development for any area. The Coalition Government's sweeping zones reform package aims to give certainty for areas that deserve protection and those identified as growth nodes," Mr Guy said.
"The Coalition Government's zone reforms reflect what communities have been crying out for, for many years – clear identification of areas that can grow and strong protection for areas that are designed to be low rise, low density neighbourhoods," Mr Guy said.
"These reforms will protect what makes Melbourne great – our streetscapes, our amenity, our liveability, while encouraging density and growth in clearly defined areas," Mr Guy said.
The Coalition Government's zones reform package features three new residential zones:
- Residential Growth Zone;
- General Residential Zone; and a
- Neighbourhood Residential Zone.
"The new Neighbourhood Residential Zone will be an instrument that can be adopted by councils to protect existing amenity of suburbs and towns.
"It will give many areas the protection they deserve and will be the strongest residential protection zone ever offered in the Victorian planning system," Mr Guy said.
This zone will include a number of features including mandatory height controls, stricter regulations around subdivision and the consideration of minimum lot sizes. The Neighbourhood Residential Zone will also be able to protect existing streetscapes and amenity with clear guidelines on what can be supported by a planning permit application.
In order to support integrity of the new Neighbourhood Residential Zone the Coalition Government has also introduced a number of complementary residential zones that will support development of medium and higher density housing in appropriate locations.
The new Residential Growth Zone will provide for a clear level of growth and change in identified areas that have clear targets for greater density. Councils will be able to use this zone to provide a new incentive to direct density and built form change in areas that are well known and identified.
"Importantly, these zones will be at the discretion of the local councils. It will ultimately be the view of the community that will inform which zone best fits where," Mr Guy said.
"Victoria's economic integrity is at the forefront of its planning decisions and these reforms are no different. The residential zone reform package supports Victoria's economy by clarifying where development can occur and what can be built," Mr Guy said.
"Importantly, it returns a level of planning certainty that has been sorely missing for the past decade," Mr Guy said.
Under the Coalition Government's planning reform agenda, plans for new outer urban growth have been released as well as the identification of Australia's largest inner city, urban renewal project in Fisherman's Bend.
These projects, combined with planning law changes and planning zone reform represent a major overhaul of the Victorian planning system since the change of government in November 2010.
"The time is right for planning reform and the Coalition Government is getting on with the job of delivering it."
Comment: The key features of the reformed planning zones will be issued for feedback for a period of 2 months from Monday 17 July until Friday 21 September.
2 comments:
Computer systems are down for those trying to put in late submission, so check with Department of Planning which i've been advised its been exteded till monday.
The meaning and intention of the OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTION appears to being misused and treated like just another tax for general revenue by Councils and Shires and thus if the ACT is not being used according to the intended law then the term should changed to reflect the true TAXING nature as indeed it has become a SHARE OF DEVELOPERS PROFITS TAX which some Councils like the Greater Dandenong Council are requiring that developers pay the several $million 'CONTRIBUTIONS TAX' prior to gaining subdivision approvals to offer OFF THE PLAN pre-sales to the public and prior to getting funding from bankers who always require pre-sales evidence before lending them the development money to proceed with providing more housing in that region. The alternative be that Councils be required to use that OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTIONS money for its proper intended use and to buy land for Parks & or Recreation use in the outer fringes of Melbourne or Victoria in lieu of the lack of such land availability in the inner suburban areas, rather than it going into consolidated revenue.
Councils are already buying land outside their boundaries for rubbish disposal Land Fill sites and Councils like the CITY OF MELBOURNE should be required to use those PUBLIC OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTION collections for purchase of their own PRIVATE OPEN SPACE for use by their ratepayers outside their council boundaries.
This would increase the demand for GWZ land which is currently the cheapest land available today, it sometimes being next door to smaller parcels of land up to 40 times more valuable per square foot and the proposal a more equitable means of getting a protected "Green Wedge" Open Space supply of land instead of expecting private landlords to pay for the original Greenie Liberal Party Premier - Rupert Hamer. It was Sir Rupert Hamer who came up with this socialistic plan to let the private owners pay for the Greens Lungs of Melbourne idealism which is silly considering that the whole of Victoria and Australia have more than enough government Crown Lands & designated National Parks and extesive millions of acres of green grazing farmlands providing fresh air for the major cities for the Lungs of Melbourne ideal.
The true financial stakeholders are the landowners and their bankers who are never consulted or been considered for invitation by letter for discussion; whereas the Green pauper and public housing groups seem to get all the attention as claiming to be stakeholders deserving influence in other peoples private property rights and in so doing debasing the asset cover held by the banks and putting the borrowing landowners at grave risk..which the Planning Ministers and their Department staff never consider in their deliberations.
If Victoria is to be run like a Socialist State by the Liberals then I wish they would just be honest about it, so we can decide whether to fight them from the trenches or to move to WA or QLD perhaps. Its been a 40 years punishment for GWZ landowners whereas murderers get substantially less these days.
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