b) Create a new Practice Note provide clearer guidance would addressing advertising sign remove a source of common provisions, in particular outlining a confusion and uncertainty among mechanism by which councils can applicants, councils and the address concerns about the community. safety impact of signs on or near state-controlled roads where VicRoads is not a referral authority c) Update Planning Practice Note 59 The Role of Mandatory – Provisions in Planning Schemes - to reflect the circumstances when mandatory provisions should be applied. ID. No. Other Clause Name Modification Justification No. 49 Technology and the Review planning systems having Visiting a council office to view a N/A availability of regard to the following: planning application file is an documents anachronism that acts as a barrier a) Review processes for to participation in the planning accessing planning applications process. Making applications and update Planning Practice available online would bring Note 74 - Availability of planning considerable transparency documents - to encourage benefits and improve public councils to make documents confidence in the planning system, relating to permit applications as well as reducing administrative available freely online via their burden for councils to service website requests. Some councils already do this for major applications. The b) Provide a plain text version of data should be made available for planning schemes on ‘Planning third parties, subject to privacy Schemes to allow Online’ considerations, to create new and and into convenient ‘copy paste’ innovative online tools for the reports, or deliver through HTML community. using PSIMS. PDF-based planning scheme provisions, while suited to printing, are difficult to interact with, and make it difficult for council planners and applicants to undertake the common task of and into reports. ‘copying’ ‘pasting’ Making a plain text version of each planning scheme would be a simple but effective time saver for practitioners. ID. No. Other Clause Name Modification Justification No. 50 Section 173 Review Section 173 agreements The use of Section 173 N/A agreements having regard to the following: agreements has increased in recent years, representing a 32 a) Their role in the planning per cent increase since 2004. This system and whether they are has cost implications for overused including in local applicants, councils and the titles schedules office. The process of drafting, negotiating and signing b) The benefits of creating a agreements is a common source standard agreement template that of planning delay. would only require minimal amendments for most purposes. Providing standard agreement templates would focus the parties on the substantive issues and reduce time and cost for all parties.
b) Create a new Practice Note addressing advertising sign provisions, in particular outlining a mechanism by which councils can address concerns about the safety impact of signs on or near state-controlled roads where VicRoads is not a referral authority c) Update Planning Practice Note 59 – The Role of Mandatory Provisions in Planning Schemes - to reflect the circumstances when mandatory provisions should be applied. provide clearer guidance would remove a source of common confusion and uncertainty among applicants, councils and the community. ID. No. Other 49 Clause No. N/A Name Technology and the availability of documents Modification Review planning systems having regard to the following: a) Review processes for accessing planning applications and update Planning Practice Note 74 - Availability of planning documents - to encourage councils to make documents relating to permit applications available freely online via their website b) Provide a plain text version of planning schemes on ‘Planning Schemes Online’ to allow convenient ‘copy and paste’ into reports, or deliver through HTML using PSIMS. Justification Visiting a council office to view a planning application file is an anachronism that acts as a barrier to participation in the planning process. Making applications available online would bring considerable transparency benefits and improve public confidence in the planning system, as well as reducing administrative burden for councils to service requests. Some councils already do this for major applications. The data should be made available for third parties, subject to privacy considerations, to create new and innovative online tools for the community. PDF-based planning scheme provisions, while suited to printing, are difficult to interact with, and make it difficult for council planners and applicants to undertake the common task of ‘copying’ and ‘pasting’ into reports. Making a plain text version of each planning scheme would be a simple but effective time saver for practitioners. ID. No. Other 50 Clause No. N/A Name Section 173 agreements Modification Review Section 173 agreements having regard to the following: a) Their role in the planning system and whether they are overused including in local schedules b) The benefits of creating a standard agreement template that would only require minimal amendments for most purposes. Justification The use of Section 173 agreements has increased in recent years, representing a 32 per cent increase since 2004. This has cost implications for applicants, councils and the titles office. The process of drafting, negotiating and signing agreements is a common source of planning delay. Providing standard agreement templates would focus the parties on the substantive issues and reduce time and cost for all parties.
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