Another day, another announcement. This time, the welcomed introduction of the new Low-Rise Code.

Yesterday, the State Government announced the introduction of the new Low-Rise Code (Clause 55), which will apply to multi-dwelling residential developments that are three (3) storeys or less in height. They have also proposed new standards for four (4) storey apartment development (Clause 57).

The Low-Rise Code will include ‘deemed to comply’ standards, expanding on the existing standards contained within Clause 55. The announcement states that in applications that meet the deemed to comply standards, there will be no right of appeal for objectors. The aim is a faster and more certain permit process for applications that meet these standards. The 4-storey apartment standards will not include a “deemed to comply” assessment.

Some changes to the existing Clause 55 standards include:

• The minimum street setback requirement has been reduced from 9 metres to 6 metres. It no longer calls for the average setback of adjoining buildings. However, if an adjoining property has a lesser setback, the lesser setback will apply.
• New tree canopy cover requirements of 10% of the site area up to 1,000 square metres and 20% of the site area of more than 1,000 square metres. Existing trees can be used to meet the requirement. We are curious to understand how this will be calculated (i.e. expected canopy at maturity of the trees or at the time of planting).
• The private open space requirement is reduced from 40 square metres to 25 square metres at ground level. We are curious to understand whether there will be any mention of the acceptability of private open space being located within the front set back of a building.
• The noise amenity provisions have been amended to focus on the impact of mechanical plant noise located in the development.
• Site coverage requirements have been revised to include a sliding scale dependant on which zone the site is located (60% Neighbourhood Residential Zone and Township Zone, 65% General Residential Zone and 70% Mixed Use Zone and the newly minted Housing Choice and Transport Zone). Whilst this is a welcomed change, we suspect that the Garden Area requirement within most GRZ sites will limit the opportunity to get close to 65% site coverage. We understand that there are no proposed changes to the Garden Area requirements in this tranche of planning reforms.
• Overlooking standards will no longer apply to bedroom windows.
• Functional layout and room depth requirements that currently apply to apartments only will now also apply to any low-rise multi-residential development.

Amongst others, the neighbourhood character and residential policy objectives/standards are proposed to be deleted from Clause 55.

We are interested to see how the Planning Schemes will be amended to deal with the subjective nature of neighbourhood character, particularly for those schemes that include detailed neighbourhood character policies.

There was no indication as to what the Clause 57 standards will include or what will occur with existing schedules to the various residential zones, particularly those with neighbourhood character objectives or that have neighbourhood character statements tied to the decision guidelines within the schedules. At this stage, we assume that existing schedules will remain.

The changes are expected to be gazetted in early March through Amendment VC267.