Over the weekend, the Victorian Government announced that it would be scaling back on the ‘catchment areas’ surrounding the 10 Pilot Activity Centres, being Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie, North Essendon, Preston (High Street), and Ringwood.
The main change relates to splitting the catchment areas into ‘inner catchment’ and ‘outer catchment’. The extent of the catchment areas for some activity centres (such as Preston) has also been reduced.
Inner catchments are now expected to have built-form up to 4-storeys (or – 6-storeys for large sites – i.e. with a site area of 1000 square metres and 20-metre frontage width).
Outer catchments are expected to have built-form up to 3-storeys (or 4-storeys for large sites).
This is a decrease from the draft Activity Centre Plans released in August 2024, where built forms of up to 6-storeys were envisioned within an 800-metre walkable catchment surrounding the activity centre core.
Today, the Government has introduced Clause 32.10 – Housing Choice and Transport Zone (HCTZ) into the Victorian Planning Scheme via Amendment VC257.
Catchment areas surrounding the activity centres (which are primarily made up of existing General Residential Zone and Neighbourhood Residential Zone) will be rezoned into the HCTZ to facilitate the increased built-form expectations under the Activity Centres Pilot Program.
The HCTZ will function as part of the existing suite of residential zones and has been drafted to reflect the 4-storey and 3-storey maximum building heights anticipated in the inner and outer catchment areas, respectively.
The maximum building heights under the HCTZ are expressed as mandatory (cannot be varied with a permit), with the exception of various exemptions.
Under the HCTZ, notice and third-party appeal rights will continue to apply, consistent with the existing residential zones.
Amendment VC257 introduces the parent controls into the Planning Schemes only, and the local variations (i.e. Schedules to the HCTZ, which would outline specific built-form requirements as they relate to the respective activity centres) are yet to be released. No rezonings within and around the 10 Activity Centres have occurred at the time of publishing.
The Amendment also introduces Clause 43.06 – Built Form Overlay (BFO), which would apply to the activity centre core to facilitate increased height and scale in these areas.
The BFO sets out a number of built-form outcomes and standards, including but not limited to heights, setbacks, floor area ratio, overshadowing of public spaces, wind, landscaping, and public benefit uplift.
The BFO enables proposals that meet the relevant built-form standards (expressed as mandatory or discretionary) to go through a fast-track planning approval process by exempting notice and third-party appeal rights. There is an ability to ‘switch on’ notice and review through local variations (i.e. Schedules to the BFO).
No local variations have been released at this stage.
The final Activity Centre Plans for the 10 Pilot sites and subsequent Planning Scheme Amendments to rezone catchment land into the HCTZ apply the BFO to the activity centre core within the next four weeks.
Stay tuned for more.
