Planning permits and applications may be eligible for reduced car parking

Edward Mahony
19 August 2018

Very recently, the State Government introduced Amendment VC148 to Planning Schemes, which applies to all Planning Schemes. It makes a number of changes in respect to State policy (Local policy changes to follow) and makes specific changes to parking requirement. Clause 52.06 of the VPP Planning Scheme relates to car parking matters. The key change it makes is to remove the requirement for visitor car parking in most situations in respect to properties that are located in and around the Public Transport Network Area (PTNA). It applies to properties within 400m of the PPTN Area as the crow flies. The mapping system identifies the properties.

What does this mean to you?

This will mean that many Planning Permits you have obtained in the past, or current planning permits applications, would no longer require on-site visitor car parking.

The Bernadette’s case principle provides that even if a Planning Scheme is amended to remove a permit requirement if an existing planning permit maintains the requirement, the permit overrides the Planning Scheme. To overcome this situation, it is necessary to apply to amend the Planning Permit on the basis of the changed Planning Scheme. Unless and until the Planning Permit is amended, the permit requirements apply.

We encourage you to review your Planning Permits, and current Applications, and contact us if there is a requirement for onsite visitor car parking, as they may be able to be removed. If that is the case, we would propose making an application to the Tribunal or Council to amend the Planning Permit to remove the requirement, or to the Council to amend the Permit Application.

In our opinion, you should act quickly to investigate. Councils are able to introduce car parking overlays which alter the rates. We suspect that this will follow shortly, and this window of opportunity for removing the car parking requirements may be limited.

Please contact Romy Davidov on (03) 9691 0203 or Dominic Scally on (03) 9691 0219 to find out more.