Want to warn local developers that you won’t tolerate over-development?
Buy or make a waterproof corflute sign to erect on your property (standard size – 600mm x 900mm)
TO ORDER SIGNS: Many printing firms will print your design on a corflute panel such as the one above. Ordering in bulk with other local residents is cheaper – eg, 30 corflutes cost around $20 each.
MAKE YOUR OWN: You can also make your own placards quite cheaply – copy our design and wording, or create your own design on a computer, print & blow up at Officeworks, laminate at the library (to make waterproof) and stick or staple onto corflute or other backing. You can also join several A3 pages together to make one bigger sign before you laminate it.
Either way, please include the SOS website in your sign so other residents who see it can access our advice to help them object to inappropriate development applications.
If you’re in a Heritage area, be sure to read NOTE 1 below about exercising caution if erecting signs in a Heritage Overlay.
For advice on how to go about objecting effectively, go to:
* our FAQ page: http://sos.asn.au/vic/faqs/
* the SOS Residents Guide
NOTE 1: A council has occasionally suggested that erection of signs requires a planning permit. However, most council signage by-laws specify that requirements for non-commercial signs apply only to advertising events and activities (eg run by community groups). This is quite different to an individual home owner’s right to protest, as long as your sign is erected on your private property and not where it could interfere with drivers’ vision.
BUT NOTE: the one exception to this is the erection of signs in heritage overlay areas where a permit is specifically required to “construct or display a sign” (Planning Scheme Clause 43.01-1). In this case, you may be contacted by your council to remove your signage but you would be warned first about any possible fine. In the only case we’ve come across, the residents only had signs up for 3 weeks in the lead up to their VCAT case and promptly removed them afterwards. Significantly, the mayor concerned had also intervened and told council by-laws officers not to take any action.
To check if you’re in a heritage overlay area, select your council from the planning dept. website: http://planningschemes.delwp.vic.gov.au/
then select your local map from the map page, then the heritage overlay map.
NOTE 2: Some community group members also use these signs at local auctions to create discussion and to let potential developers know that the local community is likely to oppose permit applications for inappropriate new development.
So what’s “inappropriate”? The simplest definition is where the proposal doesn’t comply with the relevant guidelines and policies in the planning scheme, including neighbourhood character
NOTE 3: Some auctioneers have attempted to intimidate objectors at auctions by threatening them with legal action if they attempt to “disrupt” the auction:
“The law forbids an intending bidder or a person acting on behalf of an intending bidder from doing any thing with the intention of preventing or causing a major disruption to, or causing the cancellation of, a public auction of land.”