Inquiry into Climate Resilience
As the effects of climate change begin to induce more frequent and extreme weather conditions, it is imperative to make our housing and communities more resilient to these significant challenges.
Recommendations
Upzoning for climate resilience
- Reform zoning to enable more homes to be built in climate-resilient, inner-city areas. Implement the recommendations of YIMBY Melbourne’s Melbourne’s Missing Middle report and enable six-storey mixed-use development around all existing train stations and tram stops.
The real climate risks of arbitrary planning rules
- Remove all upper-level setback requirements for buildings less than 76 metres tall across the Victorian planning scheme.
- Reform heritage protections to permit easier retrofitting, including the installation of double glazed windows, split-system heating, and solar panels.
- Reform the planning system to establish a hierarchy of considerations, such that climate, housing quality, and housing supply concerns outweigh those of heritage and neighbourhood character.
- Reassess all planning rules against this reformed hierarchy of considerations.
Related
Correcting The Age on Activity Centres
The Age’s 3D renders of the Activity Centres have more in common with Minecraft than reality. Here, we use Thornbury’s High Street to show how the planning controls actually work.
Victorian budget continues delivery of Australia’s highest housing supply
The commitment to executing ongoing reform is pleasing. More should be done to ensure that home prices continue to fall.
Inquiry into Victoria Planning Provisions amendments VC257, VC267 and VC274
If there is a single takeaway from our submission it should be this: that these reforms are not radical. Rather, they represent common- and best-practice in planning from around the country and the world, and work predominantly to correct the devastating consequences of previous planning interventions.