REASONS FOR DECISION TO EXERCISE POWER OF
INTERVENTION
UNDER SECTION 20(4) OF THE PLANNING AND
ENVIRONMENT ACT 1987
MAROONDAH PLANNING SCHEME AMENDMENT C93
The Planning and Environment Act 1987 (the Act), the Heritage Act 1995 and the
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 provide for the intervention of the
Minister for Planning in planning and heritage processes.
In exercising my powers of intervention, I have agreed to:

Make publicly available written reasons for each decision; and

Provide a report to Parliament at least every twelve months detailing the nature of
each intervention.
REQUEST FOR INTERVENTION
1.
Maroondah City Council has requested that I utilise my powers to prepare, adopt and
approve Amendment C93 to the Maroondah Planning Scheme (the planning scheme)
under section 20(4) of the Act, to introduce the reformed residential zones and
mapping annotations for the new commercial zones to the planning scheme.
WHAT POWER OF INTERVENTION IS BEING USED?
2.
I have decided to exercise my powers to exempt myself from all the requirements of
sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act and the regulations in respect to Amendment C93
to the Maroondah Planning Scheme.
3.
Section 20(4) of the Act enables the Minister for Planning to exempt an amendment
which the Minister prepares from any of the requirements of sections 17, 18 and 19
of the Act or the regulations.
4.
In seeking to exercise this power, section 20(4) of the Act requires that the Minister
must consider that compliance with any of those requirements is not warranted or
that the interests of Victoria or any part of Victoria make such an exemption
appropriate.
BACKGROUND
New Residential Zones
5.
Amendment V8 was gazetted on 1 July 2013 and introduced the Residential Growth
Zone, General Residential Zone and Neighbourhood Residential Zone into the Victoria
Planning Provisions. The new residential zones have been reformed to simplify
requirements, allow a broader range of activities to be considered and better manage
housing growth.
6.
The new residential zones enable planning authorities to better specify strategic
locations where increased densities should be provided and to limit residential change
in areas where they wish to protect neighbourhood character, environmental and
other characteristics. Being able to specify areas that should be protected from
increased residential development mean that attributes that are highly valued by the
community for specific areas and supported by work undertaken by planning
authorities can be given statutory effect in Victorian planning schemes.
Council strategic work and Amendment C93
7.
The current zoning of residential land across the planning scheme has informed the
application of the new residential zones through Amendment C93.
8.
Council worked closely with the department in finalising the application of the new
zones and data provided by the department’s State Planning Strategy and Forecasting
team was considered when deciding upon the application of the new residential zones
for Amendment C93. Officers from both Planning Statutory Services and Planning and
Building Systems are satisfied that the application of the new zones is appropriate
from a strategic planning perspective.
9.
Council has advised it is also progressing with development of a housing strategy for
Maroondah as well as a full review of the Municipal Strategic Statement and local
policies. This work will assist in determining the correct controls and whether
additional schedules are required to tailor controls to local circumstances. It is
important that the new zones are introduced, and that their operation is monitored.
The work on the housing strategy will implement any changes necessary via future
full amendment processes.
10. Transitional provisions were introduced by Amendment VC104 to ensure that existing
permit applications will not be unfairly disadvantaged by the introduction of the
Neighbourhood Residential Zone.
Updating maps – all business zones are now commercial zones
11. The new Commercial 1 and Commercial 2 zones were introduced by Amendment
VC100 on 15 July 2013 and all the business zones were deleted. An effect of that
amendment was that all land zoned Business 1, Business 2 and Business 5 was
automatically converted to the Commercial 1 Zone. Land zoned Business 3 and
Business 4 was automatically converted to the Commercial 2 Zone. Amendment C93
updates the planning scheme maps to correctly identify the land now zoned
Commercial 1 or Commercial 2 Zone
BENEFITS OF EXEMPTION
12. Exemption of the amendment under section 20(4) will enable a prompt decision on
the adoption and approval of the amendment and will allow for the orderly and timely
application of residential zoning controls for this planning scheme. It will avoid the
need for a further notification, exhibition and consultation process, which is
considered unnecessary given the strategic basis for applying the new residential
zones can be found within the existing planning scheme and is a policy neutral
translation. The views of potentially affected parties have been considered in the
preparation of Amendment C93.
13. The amendment will contribute to the fair, orderly, economic and sustainable use and
development of land in accordance with section 4 of the Act by ensuring the land is
correctly zoned.
EFFECTS OF EXEMPTION ON THIRD PARTIES
14. The exemption will mean that third parties will not have the opportunity to make a
submission on the amendment through the normal statutory process or have their
submission considered by an independent panel.
15. However, as the amendment updates and improves the operation of the Maroondah
Planning Scheme through a policy neutral translation, it is unlikely that third parties
will be negatively impacted by the exemption.
16. As Maroondah City Council requested the amendment it is considered that views of
council are known.
ASSESSMENT AS TO WHETHER BENEFITS OF EXEMPTIONS OUTWEIGH
EFFECTS ON THIRD PARTIES
17. The pending Housing Strategy work will provide further opportunity for analysis of
the operation of the newly introduced residential zones, and allow any necessary
tailoring of the zones and associated schedules.
18. The exemption will have negligible effect on the third parties.
19. Accordingly I consider that the benefits of exempting myself from sections 17, 18 and
19 of the Act outweigh any effects of the exemption on third parties.
DECISION
20. I have decided to exercise my power to exempt myself from all the requirements of
sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act and the regulations in respect of Amendment C93
to the Maroondah Planning Scheme.
REASONS FOR INTERVENTION
21. I provide the following reasons for my decision to exercise my power under section
20(4) of the Act.
22. I am satisfied that Compliance with any of the requirements of sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act and the
regulations is not warranted because:

The government has a clear agenda to reform residential zones across all
planning schemes as evidenced by the introduction of Amendment VC100
gazetted on 15 July 2013 and this Amendment C93 implements the reforms
in the Maroondah municipality.
Signed by the Minister
MATTHEW GUY MLC
Minister for Planning
Date: 4 June 2014