REASONS FOR DECISION TO EXERCISE POWER OF
INTERVENTION
UNDER SECTION 20(4) OF THE PLANNING AND
ENVIRONMENT ACT 1987
BALLARAT PLANNING SCHEME AMENDMENT C167
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.
City of Ballarat (council) has requested my intervention under section 20(4) of the
Planning and Environment Act 1987 (the Act) in respect of an amendment to the
Ballarat 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 C167
to the Ballarat 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
5.
Ballarat is a major regional centre and is expected to increase by 30,000 people
between 2006 and 2026. The majority of this population increase is expected to be
accommodated in the area covered by the Ballarat West Precinct Structure Plan
(BWPSP). The structure plan will guide greenfield development in Ballarat for the next
30 years. The structure plan will accommodate, deliver and provide for significant
growth in regional Victoria.
6.
The Ballarat West Development Contributions Plan (BWDCP) has been developed in
support of the BWPSP in providing a mechanism of funding infrastructure. The land
affected by the BWDCP is the same as that of the BWPSP. The BWDCP requires
contributions from all landowners/developers in the area (with the exception of
Crown land).
7.
The amendment is required to ensure that the development of the region provides
social, economic, environmental and urban design outcomes through the provision of
infrastructure early in the development of the new community.
8.
Amendment C167 to the Ballarat Planning Scheme inserts the Development
Contributions Plan Overlay and Schedule, associated maps and incorporates the
Ballarat West Development Contributions Plan, July 2014.
9.
On 2 October 2012, I approved Amendment C158 to the Ballarat Planning Scheme.
This introduced the remaining 3 sub precincts in the BWPSP. I determined however
not to approve the BWDCP which formed part of Amendment C158 because of
concerns about whether affected parties were adequately consulted.
10. I advised the council that it needed to undertake further work to test the merits of
the proposed BWDCP.
11. Council produced a revised set of documents for the BWDCP in November 2012.
Council then notified landowners and adjacent landowners within the Ballarat West
Growth Area (BWGA) and known interested parties for a 4 week period between 15
November 2012 and 20 December 2012.
12. A total of 27 submissions were received by council with the main grounds of objection
being centred on the proposed commercial and residential development levies being
excessively high and unaffordable, to such a degree that development of the growth
area would be severely.
13. I appointed an Advisory Committee under Part 7, section 151 of the Act in April 2013
to consider and hear submissions about the proposed BWDCP and draft Amendment
C167 to the Ballarat Planning Scheme.
14. The Advisory Committee recommended some key modifications to the DCP including
a reduction in the residential and commercial levy that was proposed in the exhibited
BWDCP.
15. In relation to the proposed drainage scheme the Advisory Committee has
recommended modifications, based on the evidence put to it. In summary, the
Advisory Committee recommends increasing the construction, residential and
commercial levy to attribute an overall additional $1,446,000 towards works to the
Kensington Creek to accommodate outflow from a catchment within the development
area. This was agreed to at the hearing by parties to the issue.
16. The Advisory Committee also recommended that I use section 20(4) of the Act to
exempt myself from the notice requirements in sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act to
progress Amendment C167 to the Ballarat Planning Scheme to implement the BWDCP
as proposed with some modifications.
BENEFITS OF EXEMPTION
17. The main benefit of exemption is that it will enable a prompt decision to be made on
the adoption and approval of the amendment. This will enable the application of
planning controls to be expedited so that full effect can be given to the BWDCP and
infrastructure can be supplied early in the development of BWGA.
EFFECTS OF EXEMPTION ON THIRD PARTIES
18. The effects of the exemption will be that third parties will not have the opportunity
to make formal submissions to the planning authority and for submissions to be
considered by a panel.
19. The Advisory Committee has advised me on all relevant matters concerning the
proposed BWDCP and the documentation for a future planning scheme amendment
and the submissions lodged through that process.
20. The Advisory Committee process occurred over a period of approximately seven
months during 2013. This process enabled the matters in dispute between parties to
narrow and substantial revisions to be made, by agreement to the BWDCP.
Concessions were made by Council during the course of the hearing, which included:



Deletion of certain infrastructure items;
Adjustments to the cost apportionment of certain items; and
Correction of errors to the cost apportionment of certain items.
21. The Advisory Committee has thoroughly examined all the issues associated with the
proposed BWDCP and statutory documentation.
22. The effects of the exemption on third parties is therefore considered to be minimal.
ASSESSMENT AS TO WHETHER BENEFITS OF EXEMPTIONS OUTWEIGH
EFFECTS ON THIRD PARTIES
23. The matter will give effect to an outcome where the issues have been reasonably
considered and the views of affected parties are known, since the BWDCP has been
subject to considerable public consultation primarily through the Advisory Committee
process.
24. Formal notification and exhibition under the Act would duplicate process and delay
the supply of infrastructure to land in a regional growth area.
25. 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
26. 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 C167
to the Ballarat Planning Scheme.
REASONS FOR INTERVENTION
27. I provide the following reasons for my decision to exercise my power under section
20(4) of the Act.
28. 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 views if potentially affected third parties are known;

The relevant stakeholders and agencies have been consulted in the development
of the BWDCP; and

Compliance with any of the requirements of sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act
and regulations would to a large extent duplicate the consultation undertaken by
the Council and analysis by the Advisory Committee. This would unduly delay the
ability to deliver infrastructure early to the BWGA.
SIGNED BY THE MINISTER
MATTHEW GUY MLC
Minister for Planning
Date: 13 October 2014