The fate of new Environmentally Sustainable Development guidelines, which were recently adopted by the City of Ballarat, rests as much with the state government's willingness to fully implement them as it does with any council's desire to apply them, says the Municipal Association of Victoria's president David Clark.
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The state government released its roadmap to environmentally sustainable development of buildings and subdivisions in 2020, and gazetted an amendment to the Victoria Planning Provisions (VPP) to adopt ESD principles in June this year.
"The Amendment changes the VPP and all planning schemes in Victoria by making changes to the Planning Policy Framework in the Victoria Planning Provisions and all planning schemes to support Environmentally Sustainable Development," tamhe Victoria Government Gazette reports.
City of Ballarat councillors unanimously adopted the MAV Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment (CASBE) environmentally sustainable design guidelines at their meeting in May this year.
The standards would give council the authority to refuse housing and commercial building applications not prioritising renewable energy, insulation or storm water recycling in their designs, lacking obvious links to sustainable transport, or failing to balance the risk of urban heating with green infrastructure.
But Mr Clark says despite the amendment to the VPP, there's a long way to go to gauge the state government's willingness to genuinely change planning policy for the better. Does the MAV have the support of the government to make those changes?
Mr Clark says the short answer is: not yet.
"There are two issues here at play," he says.
"The first one is - this is a trial which goes until October. So I think (the government will) rightfully say, "Let's wait to see what happens in the trial and finish that.
"The second bigger issue is - we're trying to pursue where climate change sits in the Planning and Environment Act in that policy sense, because the Climate Change Act doesn't mention planning as a key outcome. That's one of the things we're trying to drive through the system. So I would say (we don't have complete government support), not at this point.
Right or wrong, the developers are much more in (the government's) ear than we are as the councils.
- David Clark, president of the MAV
"There's a level of interest from bureaucracy, and there's a high-level commitment from the government in terms of its approach to climate generally. But there's a middle bit of work to do in the sense of taking (government) on the journey of what this looks like. It's all about the cost of building new homes. That will be the bit where they'll be nervous."
As the government heads to an election where it has an almost unassailable lead in the polls and a huge majority; but the simultaneous problem of losing a number of senior ministers to retirement - is it a case of not wanting to upset the building applecart too much, especially given so much of the Andrews government's financial future is built on development?
"I think that's right," Mr Clark says.
"You know, we can do water tanks, we can do north-facing buildings, that kind of thing. But the tougher discussion is around things like public space and how that works; how close you can be to it, so you can walk to it rather than drive to it.
"All the kind of stuff that actually affects what the developer gets at the end of the day, that's the stuff that's going to be tough. Right or wrong, the developers are much more in (the government's) ear than we are as the councils.
"My sense is the low hanging fruit will get over. But the rest will depend whether the developer industry has got the power to actually stop it. And that's where the risk is. You know, I cut my teeth on the environment plans for the Yarrowee in the 90s. And we've only gone backwards."
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