Neighbours lose appeal rights in new laws to slash planning approval times

3 hours ago 5

Victorian residents will lose their rights to appeal or be notified about neighbouring new homes and low-rise apartment developments under a major overhaul of the state’s planning laws designed to slash maximum approvals times to as little as 10 days.

The sweeping new legislation, to be introduced to parliament on Monday, is the latest in the Allan government’s anti-“NIMBY” messaging as it seeks to speed up the construction of new homes.

Premier Jacinta Allan announcing sweeping changes to planning laws on Tuesday.

The bill will create three separate pathways for planning approvals to allow simpler projects – such as houses, townhouses and small apartment blocks – to be fast-tracked.

Standalone homes and duplexes would take 10 days to be approved while townhouses and low-rise apartments would take 30 days. Larger apartment complexes and developments would take 60 days to be approved.

A planning permit currently takes an average of 140 days to get approved, and if there is an objection, that time can blow out to more than 300 days, according to the government.

Premier Jacinta Allan said the current planning laws were written decades ago and the changes would bring the laws into the 21st century.

The bill will allow projects such as houses, townhouses and small apartment blocks to be fast-tracked.

“We also need to overhaul them to take them from being old-fashioned NIMBY-type rules, into a planning system that says yes and gets homes and projects built more quickly,” Allan said on Tuesday.

Under the proposed changes to the Planning and Environment Act, there would also be sweeping changes to community appeal rights so long as buildings met pre-approved guidelines.

The new streams for homes, duplexes, townhouses and lower-density apartments would require no notice and have no avenue for third-party appeals.

For the third stream – which includes large developments such as high-rise apartments – only people directly affected, like neighbours, will get notice of the application and have a right to appeal.

“Commonsense appeal rights that simply makes sure that people who live a long way from where the project is being built, the home is being built, shouldn’t have the opportunity to stop those projects, those homes being built,” Allan said.

The proposed laws would also remove parliament’s ability to revoke any amendments to the planning scheme made by the planning minister.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said new homes shouldn’t be delayed by people who don’t live anywhere near a proposal.

“We’re fixing a planning system that’s been slowing things down,” she said.

Kilkenny said residential codes make it clear to councils that if a home is designed to a standard, it is deemed to comply and should be approved.

The state government has been locked in an “anti-NIMBY” campaign to boost housing supply since September 2023, when it first revealed plans to create activity centres, which make it easier to build high density developments is key locations near trains stations.