Automatic green light for townhouses, small apartments to speed up builds

Townhouses and low-rise apartments up to three storeys will be fast-tracked in Victoria under a new code that will curtail the right of neighbours to appeal against developments if they meet a set of standards.

On Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny will announce a “townhouse and low-rise code” they hope will help cut the waiting time for planning approvals by 60 per cent.

The government is also developing rules to fast-track four- to six-storey apartments and rewriting the cumbersome Planning and Environment Act, after The Age last year revealed the most significant overhaul of the legislation in more than two decades was under way.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny and Premier Jacinta Allan last year.Credit: Simon Schluter

To meet the new code for three-storey projects, applications would need to prove they have six-metre setbacks; tree canopy and open space; a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in larger projects; overshadowing protections for neighbours; sunlight, storage, minimum room size and ventilation; and sustainability and energy-efficiency standards.

From April, councils will only need to determine whether such applications meet the code. If so, they will be deemed to comply and given the green light to proceed. It would also block neighbours from taking the projects through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Applications currently face an average 145-day wait for a decision. If a decision is appealed through VCAT, developers face another 175-day wait for a hearing.

Developments up to three-storeys will be approved if they meet standards.

Affected neighbours would still be notified of a proposal, and the government says residents can still have a say under the streamlined process, which it said had been developed after consultation with stakeholders.

“We believe in good, comfortable, well-designed homes – that’s why we’re codifying them,” Kilkenny said.

A proposal that doesn’t meet the standards would need to go through the existing process. Other local planning rules – such as heritage and flood overlays or two-storey limits – would still need to be complied with.

The government began a range of housing announcements this week by reducing planned height limits in streets neighbouring some of its activity centres targeted for extra development.

On Monday, it slashed the housing targets set for Melbourne councils by almost a quarter of a million to 1.78 million homes by 2051.

The government – in setting each metropolitan council its own target – has argued that residential development across Melbourne has not been evenly spread, became overly reliant on greenfield outer suburbs and contributed to urban sprawl.

It specifically called out Boroondara as having lower rates of residential construction, and on Monday, Kilkenny threatened to strip a council of its powers if it didn’t show its commitment to meet its targets in updated planning schemes.

Boroondara Mayor Sophie Torney said the council – which represents suburbs including Kew, Balwyn and Camberwell – had planned for thousands of new homes and had worked hard to develop a relationship with Kilkenny.

“To specifically name and shame Boroondara’s growth in comparison to Melbourne’s western suburbs is wrong,” Torney said. “We have had established neighbourhoods and communities here for more than 150 years, with very few large greenfield sites to build large numbers of houses.

“In fact, the growth that we’ve had in Boroondara has been built responsibly around infrastructure and existing services in higher-density housing forms, just as the government is encouraging.”

The opposition’s local government spokeswoman, Beverley McArthur, said the state should not be dictating targets to councils.

“Local government is not the patsy for state government,” she said.

Jonathan O’Brien, lead organiser of advocacy group YIMBY Melbourne, claimed that expensive homes on large lots were counted towards development capacity in councils such as Boroondara despite such properties being too costly to buy for redevelopment.

O’Brien said the government had to explain why it had shrunk its targets, and that planners should focus on results.

“Instead of generating piles of documents consisting of misleading figures, arbitrary rules and false promises, they must focus on building actual homes for actual Victorians,” O’Brien said.

The Property Council’s Victorian executive director, Cath Evans, welcomed the targets but said the vision would not be realised without tax relief, to reflect challenges in the sector.

“We support the ambitious housing targets outlined today. However, without targeted relief to address the fundamental structural issues facing the property sector, it is impossible to see how these targets can be delivered,” she said.

Evans said many residential projects didn’t stack up because of high supply costs, labour shortages, delays in approvals and state taxes.

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