This module provides an overview of elements of the Victoria Planning Provisions and how to use them to construct a planning scheme.
It explores the different elements of the Victoria Planning Provisions in some detail, and how they should be used, providing participants with strategies and techniques to help select the best tools to use in their local planning scheme.
This short course is designed to encourage staff to reflect on the particular challenges of making good decisions in the Victorian system. In a system where sometimes it feels any decision is arguable, how do we make rigorous, accountable, logical and ethical decisions?
This session explores ways to think about the decision-making process, common pitfalls, and strategies to improve decision-making.
Planning permits are legally binding documents. This means that preparing them is a from of statutory drafting. This is an important foundational skill for any statutory planner.
This session covers the basics of drafting planning permits that are easy to understand and legally robust. It also covers the less frequently discussed topic of how to prepare a good refusal.
This session presents lessons from Stephen’s 25 years as a frequent, but somewhat reluctant, participant at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. It covers tips for presenting, the challenges of presenting planning as a planner in a pseudo-legal setting, and the particular challenges of presenting cases for local government.
This course will provide an overview of how to make the most of the planning scheme review process that needs to be completed every four years, as required under Section 12B of the Planning and Environment Act 1987.
Drawing on published advice from DELWP as well as experience from many Council reviews across the state, you will learn the steps that you should follow to undertake a meaningful and thorough review, and how to identify and strategically justify changes that need to be made to your planning scheme as a result.
The Victorian VPP-based planning system appears to be built on well-designed foundations, based on seemingly sound principles of strategically-driven performance-based planning. Yet after more than two decades it struggles to achieve efficient decision-making and effective policy implementation.
In this reflective session Stephen explores why multiple rounds of system review have made such limited progress. In response, he suggests alternative approaches to structuring and writing planning controls that can help the Victorian system deliver on its potential.
Planning for settlements outside the metropolitan area and regional cities has unique challenges. This course provides participants with a straightforward framework to plan rural and regional communities efficiently, considering risk, seasonality, local industry and employment trends, servicing availability and realistic levels of community services and infrastructure that can be provided to support communities.
This is a reflective short session based on and expanding Stephen’s presentation at the 2023 VPELA conference.
It discusses the issue of integrity in planning, in light of the findings of IBAC’s Operation Sandon enquiry. It looks at the implications for decision-makers and policy-makers and examines the particular challenges of maintaining integrity within the Victorian system.
This course is designed for planners who are responsible for delivering strategic plans such as Housing Strategies, Urban Design Frameworks, Economic Development Strategies, Structure Plans and Heritage Studies.
The course will look at all aspects of project management including development of the brief, project governance, community consultation, stakeholder engagement, budget management and managing the client / provider relationship. There will be a particular focus on ensuring that plans can be implemented (though the planning scheme, capital works budget and other channels).
This is a session for statutory planning teams regarding the planning framework for live music.
It is intended as a refresher to help statutory planners meet their obligations in managing and protecting live music venues. It explores the challenges and tensions inherent in this issue.
