As well as the recent call-ins of “strategic” sites by the Minister, in February the government unilaterally adopted Amendment VC53 to all Victorian planning schemes, which amends Clause 62.02-1 to include a planning permit exemption for ANY council building works costing less than $1 million.
The amendment was snuck in with no consultation at all under cover of the bushfire recovery amendments. It was adopted by the Minister on Feb.18 and gazetted on Feb.23, just 16 days after the tragic inferno of Feb.7. [http-//www.dse.vic.gov.au/planningschemes/aavpp/62.pdf]
That means your council can ignore all the neighbourhood character, environmental and design guidelines in its own planning scheme and build anything it likes wherever it likes, as long as it complies with building regulations and the works cost less than $1 million! All in the name of “economic recovery”.
Then there’s the desalination plant where, as with Kennett’s CityLink, tenders were being let before the EES process had even finished (not that this was any threat to the project because the EES terms of reference were carefully limited to how the plant should operate, not whether it should be built or not).
Now we find that in a somewhat Stalinesque move, all reference to the Melbourne 2030 Implementation Reference Group was quietly removed from the DPCD website several months ago. The IRG was unilaterally abolished by the current planning Minister early last year after it produced a number of reports critical of the way the government was handling the implementation of M2030. The IRG was the only formal representative body the government had for feedback from a range of stakeholders on the progress of Melbourne 2030, and the only official body with community representation (SOS had two seats on the committee).
However, the IRG reports and minutes will shortly be archived on the SOS website as a community service.