Sweeping changes to streamline planning and houses built quicker, will not have any "major impact" on Ballarat.
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In the midst of a nation-wide housing crisis, the Victorian Government has announced plans to hasten getting houses built.
The focus is on multiple unit developments.
On the heels of the announcement, City of Ballarat growth and development director Natalie Robertson said the new provisions now inserted into planning schemes state-wide are "not expected to have a major impact on the City of Ballarat as the responsible authority".
"Although a small number of planning applications will now be eligible to be considered by the minister instead of the City of Ballarat, our statutory planning unit will mostly be unaffected as there are currently few large construction projects in Ballarat that will require state-level intervention," she said.
"While state-level intervention such as that announced by the Premier Daniel Andrews can assist in reducing City of Ballarat's planning application backlog, the broader planning framework remains the fundamental issue.
"More streamlined legislation is required to facilitate a quicker assessment process and we are pleased to hear that a review of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 will form part of this suite of changes."
Since the start of the new financial year, the council have received 183 applications in less than three months - 170 have been approved.
In the 2022/23 financial year Ballarat council had 775 planning permits passed out of 878 applications received.
Out of these 674 were new applications.
According to the Victorian Government, there is a backlog of 1400 housing permit applications that have been stuck with councils for more than six months.
The changes, as announced by Mr Andrews on September 21 would be how the unit in the Department of Transport and Planning will rapidly review multi-unit developments with development costs above $10 million.
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The government will expand the Development Facilitation Program (DFP) - making the Minister for Planning the decision-maker for significant residential developments that include affordable housing.
The expanded DFP will streamline the planning process for medium to high density residential developments that meet the set criteria - constructions costs worth at least $50 million in Melbourne or $15 million in regional Victoria, and delivering at least 10 per cent affordable housing.
This will include new build-to-rent projects.
In six weeks, the government want to have a dedicated team up and running to work with project proponents, local councils, and referral agencies to resolve issues delaying council decision-making.
This is to avoid Victorian Civil Tribunal and Administrative Council and get houses built faster.
Ballarat council reported $208,641 in costs relating to planning, regulation and governance matters in Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2022/23.
For Ballarat in 2022/23, 13 appeals were lodged and 12 decisions were handed down. Most VCAT decisions upheld the council's decision with varied conditions (six), the rest were either set aside or withdrawn.
A Deemed to Comply range of standards are to be developed in hopes to speed up decision-making and these will no longer be be considered by VCAT.
City of Ballarat council recently endorsed the Draft Housing Strategy for public submissions - the strategy aims to pave the way for a potential 30,000 new houses in Ballarat in 15 years.
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