REASONS FOR DECISION TO EXERCISE POWER OF
INTERVENTION
UNDER SECTION 20(4) OF THE PLANNING AND
ENVIRONMENT ACT 1987
BOROONDARA PLANNING SCHEME AMENDMENT C220
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 the Minister’s powers of intervention, including action taken under
delegation from the Minister for Planning, the Minister has 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. Boroondara City Council has requested the Minister for Planning to exempt himself
from all the requirements of section 17, 18 and 19 of the Act and the regulations in
respect to Amendment C220 to the Boroondara Planning Scheme.
2. Amendment C220 removes floor space restrictions from two incorporated documents
that have been made largely redundant due to the introduction of the new
Commercial Zones. Council has previously carried out notification of Amendment
C220 to owners and occupiers of the subject sites and did not receive any objections.
WHAT POWER OF INTERVENTION IS BEING USED?
2.
Under delegated authority from the Minister for Planning I have decided to exercise
the power to exempt the Minister from all the requirements of sections 17, 18 and 19
of the Act and the regulations in respect to Amendment C220 to the Boroondara
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.
Amendment V100 was gazetted on 15 July 2013 and introduced new Commercial
Zones into the Victoria Planning Provisions. The new Commercial Zones have been
reformed to provide greater flexibility and growth opportunities for Victoria’s
commercial and business centres.
6.
The Reformed Zones Ministerial Advisory Committee was established to consider all
submissions and to advise the Minister for Planning on the zone reforms. A total of
446 submissions related to Commercial zones.
7.
Council carried out notification to the owners and occupiers of the subject sites and
did not receive any objections to the proposed changes.
8.
The floor space provisions contained in the incorporated documents 1 Whitehorse
Road, Deepdene and 308 High Street, Kew, are redundant following the changes to
the zones introduced by Amendment VC100 and Amendment C190 to the Boroondara
Planning Scheme.
9.
Amendment C220 is required to ensure consistency with the Victoria Planning
Provisions by removing floor space restrictions following the introduction of new
Commercial Zones through Amendment VC100.
10. The Minister for Planning has directed all Councils to remove floor space restrictions
contained in incorporated documents or development plans to ensure that they are
consistent with the commercial zones introduced through Amendment VC100.
11. Amendment C220 completes the process begun by Amendment VC100 to implement
Commercial Zone reforms by extending this process to include documents
incorporated into the Boroondara Planning Scheme.
12. The Amendment is supported by and implements the relevant sections of the State
and Local Planning Policy Framework.
BENEFITS OF EXEMPTION
13. Exemption of the amendment under section 20(4) will enable the completion of the
process to implement new Commercial zones, removing redundant controls from
incorporated documents.
EFFECTS OF EXEMPTION ON THIRD PARTIES
14. The effect of exempting this Amendment from the usual notice requirements will
remove the opportunity for potentially affected parties to be formally notified of the
amendment and to have their submissions considered by a Panel. A further
notification, exhibition and consultation process is considered unnecessary given the
public notice and review undertaken by the Reformed Zones Ministerial Advisory
Committee and the informal notice process undertaken by council with affected land
owners and occupiers.
ASSESSMENT AS TO WHETHER BENEFITS OF EXEMPTIONS OUTWEIGH
EFFECTS ON THIRD PARTIES
15. I consider that any effect of my decision to exempt myself from giving notice of the
Amendment is outweighed by the benefits of the exemption.
16. The City of Boroondara has undertaken targeted notification and the Reformed Zones
Ministerial Advisory Committee process involved a thorough review of associated
issues.
17. Accordingly I, acting under delegation from the Minister, consider that the benefits of
exemption from sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act outweigh any effects of the
exemption on third parties.
DECISION
13. Under delegated authority from the Minister for Planning I have decided to exercise
the power to exempt the Minister from all the requirements of sections 17, 18 and 19
of the Act and the regulations in respect of Amendment C220 to the Boroondara
Planning Scheme.
REASONS FOR INTERVENTION
14. I provide the following reasons for my decision under delegated authority to exercise
the power under section 20(4) of the Act.
15. I, acting under delegation from the Minister, 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 floor space restrictions in the two incorporated documents are
redundant following the introduction of Amendment VC100 which was
gazetted on 15 July 2013. The Amendment completes the implementation
of the Reformed Commercial Zones in the Boroondara Planning Scheme.

The removal of floor space restrictions provides consistency with changes
introduced by Amendment VC100 and Amendment C190.

The amendment has been requested by council and the removal of floor
space restrictions in the Commercial zones was considered by the
Reformed Zones Ministerial Advisory Committee.
SIGNED BY THE DELEGATE
RACHAEL JOINER
Director
Planning Services and Impact Assessment
Date: 24 August 2015