Do I need a planning permit in Victoria?

A planning permit is needed only where a provision of the planning scheme requires one. There are three places to look. The zone has a table of uses and a set of development clauses. Overlays mapped over the zone each have their own permit triggers. Particular provisions in the 50 series, such as car parking or native vegetation, can add triggers of their own.

For a house in a residential zone the use is in Section 1 of the table, so no permit is needed to use the land for a dwelling. The development clause then says a permit is needed to construct or extend one dwelling only where the lot is less than 300 square metres. On a larger lot with no overlay, a new house or extension needs no planning permit.

A second dwelling is the reverse. The zone requires a permit to construct a dwelling if there is at least one dwelling already on the lot, so a dual occupancy always needs a planning permit. A small second dwelling of 60 square metres or less has its own pathway with a permit only on lots under 300 square metres.

Subdivision always needs a permit in the residential zones, and any Section 2 use, such as a shop or office in a residential zone, needs a permit for the use and for the buildings and works.

An overlay sits on top of the zone and adds its own permit requirements. A Heritage Overlay usually needs a permit for demolition, external alterations and new buildings. A Design and Development Overlay, Neighbourhood Character Overlay, Bushfire Management Overlay, Land Subject to Inundation Overlay or Special Building Overlay each carry a buildings and works trigger, with exemptions set in their schedules.

This is why the general exemptions cannot be read on their own. Clause 62.02 lists fences, decks, pergolas, sheds and other domestic works that need no permit, but the list ends with the words that it does not apply if a permit is specifically required. An overlay is exactly such a specific requirement. Demolition works the same way: no permit unless a provision specifically requires one.

Some zone rules apply even when no permit is needed. The maximum building height in the residential zones is one, and the minimum garden area is another. A building surveyor cannot issue a building permit for a house that breaches the zone height, so the planning scheme reaches the project either way.

Overlays are mapped by each council and the same street can carry different ones from one lot to the next, so a neighbour's experience is not a reliable guide to your own parcel.

Start with the zone at the parcel from the council's planning scheme maps. Read its table of uses for the use you want, then its development clauses for the trigger that matches your work: one dwelling, a small second dwelling, two or more dwellings, subdivision, or works for a Section 2 use. Then list every overlay on the parcel and read each overlay's permit trigger and schedule. Finally check the Clause 62 exemptions and whether any particular provision applies.

If nothing requires a permit, the project goes straight to a building surveyor for a building permit, and the Building Regulations siting rules apply, with council report and consent for anything that departs from them. If a permit is required, check whether the class is VicSmart, which is decided without notice or third party review when the listed standards are met.

The council's own scheme, not the state provisions alone, is the document that governs. The Victoria Planning Provisions quoted here are the template every council scheme is built from, but the schedules to the zones and overlays are written by each council and change the numbers.

A useful habit is to write down, for each of the three sources, the clause that either requires a permit or exempts the work. If every line reads no permit, the project is a building permit job. If any line requires a permit, that clause is the one the application is made under, and its own information requirements and decision guidelines are what the council will use. Applications made under the wrong clause, or lodged without the overlay identified, are the ones that stall at the request for further information stage.