"Improving Access to Council Planning File documents"

Cllick on this Planning Department Practice Note to see what planning application documents residents are entitled to see and get copies of (at cost).  Unfortunately some councils don't follow the Prac Note closely, but it does at least let you know what you're entitled to ask for.
If you have trouble getting copies of application documents and plans, or are being charged too much for them, let us know by phone or email – Click here to Contact SOS

Due to possible copyright issues with some documents incorporated in planning schemes (eg, reference documents like the ANZ Parking Standards), the Department of Planning and Community Development has temporarily withdrawn this Prac Note to make minor changes.
However, the Department says this won't effect access to the documents you'd normally need in a planning file. 

DPCD says that the Practice Note should be back on their website "later in 2012".

For basic inquiries, download our Objectors' Guide for help in objecting to development applications at the council level and at VCAT. It explains how to determine your grounds of objection, how to deal with councils, making an appeal to VCAT, etc.

SOS also provides brief general planning advice as a service to our members and the public, through our Contact page and our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. 

We don't have the resources to provide free detailed professional advice (such as a full analysis of plans or planning policies related to an individual development application), but if you contact us we can probably refer you to a planning professional or local community group for help.

Click on "Links" to find general planning information, the Planning Department, the Planning Tribunal (VCAT), community planning groups, politicians and the media.

Finally – don't be surprised to find out that councils don't always assess permit applications properly, and that state planning controls are full of loopholes.  This is unfortunately why groups like SOS exist, as a necessary response in a democracy to the weakening and deregulation of town planning controls that are supposed to be there for the benefit of the wider community, not the short-term interests of developers and politicians.

For more on the failings of the discretionary planning regime in Victoria, see the Project Melbourne series of articles in the Age in early 2010, and the Auditor General's May 2008 report into Planning in Victoria (especially part 6: "78% of planning permit decisions are flawed").