Archive:  Amendment C39

 Last Updated 21/3/07

Residents Lose Rights To Notice, Object and Appeal As Minister for Planning Today Signs Off On Amendment C39:  Rights to Know Now Squashed For All Development Applications In Residential Zones Where Development Plan Overlays Apply

(23/11/06 - P)  According to VCAT, Development Plan Overlays extinguish all residents' rights, and now, thanks to C39, DPOs are over 5 of 6 of our main towns: Gisborne, Kyneton, Riddells Creek, Romsey, Woodend.  Council alone will make decisions - and with Macedon Ranges Council, that could mean developers can basically do what they want, and we can't have any say in it.

We were expecting this to happen, and it finally has.  This Amendment has been sitting with the Department of Sustainability and Environment for over a year; it was approved today (23/11/06). 

The alarm bells really started ringing on C39 after VCAT's emphatic decision on the Gisborne Call Centre earlier this month.  VCAT pronounced that, once a Development Plan Overlay is applied to land, nobody has any right to be notified of any development applications, or to object, or take any application to VCAT.  

With Minister Rob Hulls' approval today of Amendment C39, from now on no resident has any rights to know, comment or contest any development application in a residential zone, where the Development Plan Overlay is applied, in Gisborne, Kyneton, Riddells Creek, Romsey or Woodend.  Note: The DPO has been in place in Gisborne for 2 years, but Council has interpreted the DPO provisions as not always excluding residents from the process.  Everything has changed with VCAT's decision that no-one has rights.  This means residents have no rights on any further applications for 1000 (or even 2) lots on land where a DPO applies.

MRRA Says:

Macedon Ranges just got a lot closer to oblivion. Immediate action - IMMEDIATE ACTION - must be taken by the Minister for Planning to change the State-level DPO provisions so that residents retain their rights to notice, objection and appeal (a) when there is no development plan (as is required by the Development Plan Overlay), and (b) where applications aren't in accord with approved development plans. 

Send an email, demanding immediate action, to Planning Minister Rob Hulls NOW!   Click rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au

Council Sends Amendments C39 and C40 to Independent Panel

(22/4/05 - P)

After receiving submissions and objections to Amendment C39 (application of Development Plans and several other changes) and Amendment C40 (rezoning in Woodend for new Council Waste Facility) Council has voted to send both amendments to an independent planning panel.

Your Rights Removed?    Amendment C39:

(21/3/05 - P) Development Plan Overlays for Romsey, Kyneton, Woodend and Riddells Creek

Note: Amendment C39 is on public exhibition until Monday 21^st March.  This time may have been extended, check with Council.

What does Amendment C39 do?  Amendment C39 proposes to place a Development Plan Overlay [DPO] over undeveloped Residential 1 zoned land in Kyneton, Woodend, Romsey and Riddells Creek.   While Development Plan Overlays can produce better subdivision outcomes, they also take away your rights to be consulted, making Council the sole decision-maker for residential subdivisions.

• A Development Plan Overlay means Council must approve a development plan before applications for subdivision (and development) can be approved. 
• The problem for residents is that our legal rights to be notified of and appeal at VCAT against subsequent applications for subdivision and development are extinguished at the time Council approves a development plan.  In other words, we won’t know (and won’t have a say in) what happens next door unless we are consulted on the development plan, and there is presently no specific requirement for residents to be consulted.

Amendment C39 also places an overlay schedule, Development Plan Overlay Schedule 1 [DPO1] over residential areas in Romsey, Woodend, Riddells Creek and Kyneton.

• The overlay schedule, DPO1, was prepared for and applied to Gisborne by Ministerial Amendment C38 in September 2004.  It introduced stronger subdivision standards and recognized issues that are important in Gisborne. 
• Amendment C39 puts the same Gisborne DPO1 overlay schedule over the other towns.  The schedule doesn’t recognize issues that are important in those other towns.  The only map in the DPO1 schedule is a map of Gisborne.

What You Can Do

Make a submission on the Amendment asking Council to:

• Prepare individual overlay schedules for each town, and
• Use a different overlay or control (e.g. a Design and Development Overlay) which does not extinguish community rights to be consulted, or
• Make a policy about who and how it will consult on applications for Development Plans.

(Access Am. C39 at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au at ‘Planning Scheme Amendments’, click on ‘M’ for Macedon Ranges and then ‘C39’).