By Daniella White
Victorian residents will lose their rights to appeal or be notified about neighbouring new homes and low-rise apartment developments under a major overhaul of the state’s planning laws designed to slash maximum approvals times to as little as 10 days.
Sweeping new legislation introduced to parliament on Tuesday would automatically approve planning permits for standalone homes and subdivisions if councils fail to determine them within the set timeframe.
The bill – the latest policy in the Allan government’s anti-“NIMBY” push to speed up home construction – has been widely welcomed by property groups but lashed by councils, which say they were not consulted despite being expected to implement the changes.
Premier Jacinta Allan announcing sweeping changes to planning laws on Tuesday.Credit: Eddie Jim
The bill will create three separate pathways for planning approvals to allow simpler projects – such as houses, townhouses and small apartment blocks – to be fast-tracked.
A planning permit currently takes an average of 140 days to get approved, and if there is an objection, that time can blow out to more than 300 days, according to the government.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the current planning laws were written decades ago and the changes would bring the laws into the 21st century.
The bill will allow projects such as houses, townhouses and small apartment blocks to be fast-tracked.Credit: Jason South
“We also need to overhaul them to take them from being old-fashioned NIMBY-type rules, into a planning system that says yes and gets homes and projects built more quickly,” Allan said on Tuesday.
Permits for standalone homes and duplexes (stream one) would need to be determined within 10 days, while townhouses and low-rise apartments (stream two) would have a 30-day timeframe. Larger apartment complexes and developments would be allotted 60 days for approval.
Stream one homes will be automatically approved if councils fail to approve them in required 10-day timeframe.
Under the proposed changes to the Planning and Environment Act, there would also be sweeping changes to community appeal rights so long as buildings met pre-approved guidelines.
The new streams for homes, duplexes, townhouses and lower-density apartments would require no notice and have no avenue for third-party appeals.
For the third stream – which includes large developments such as high-rise apartments – only people directly affected, like neighbours, will get notice of the application and have a right to appeal.
“Commonsense appeal rights that simply makes sure that people who live a long way from where the project is being built, the home is being built, shouldn’t have the opportunity to stop those projects, those homes being built,” Allan said.
In practice, this means developments in streams one and two that meet residential codes will be “deemed to comply” and approved, without residents having the ability to object except in limited stream two circumstances.
The proposed laws would also remove parliament’s ability to revoke any amendments to the planning scheme made by the planning minister.
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said new homes shouldn’t be delayed by people who don’t live anywhere near a proposal.
Municipal Association of Victoria, which represents the state’s 79 councils, said the government had failed to consult planners whose job it will be to impose the changes.
“The bill aims for faster decisions and greater certainty, but the closed-shop approach to reform risks inefficiency and mistakes. Ultimately, it risks the erosion of public trust in planning decisions and in government,” president Jennifer Anderson said.
Victorian executive director of the Property Council Cath Evans said the reforms marked an important milestone after years of consultation and delay, representing “meaningful commonsense progress”.
Linda Allison, Victoria executive director of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, said the proposed changes struck the balance between saying yes to more homes and still giving the community a say on larger-scale developments.
The state government has been locked in an “anti-NIMBY” campaign to boost housing supply since September 2023, when it first revealed plans to create activity centres, which make it easier to build high-density developments in key locations near trains stations.
Brighton residents protest against the government’s plan on activity centres last year.Credit: Nine News
Allan has sought to label the opposition as “blockers” after the Coalition railed against the activity centre precincts, notably when Brighton MP James Newbury – then the opposition planning spokesman – joined a protest in the affluent bayside suburb last year.
The government has previously announced changes to make it easier to subdivide land and build townhouses, and set housing targets for every local government area.
Last year, The Age revealed the government was planning to remove residents’ rights to challenge developments if proposals meet the new code’s rules.
YIMBY lead organiser Jonathan O’Brien said the changes put an end to councils rejecting housing by saying “it doesn’t fit the character” of a neighbourhood.
“Melbourne’s housing crisis is partly a crisis of delay. Projects that should take months take years. Automatic approvals for low-impact development will light a fire under slow councils. If you can’t make a decision, the decision gets made for you,” he said.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin said he always had a “serious problem” when the government tried to take away communities’ rights to have a say.
He said Victoria didn’t have a planning problem, but the government itself was holding back approvals on greenfields site.
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