Amendment C271 Fitzroy and Collingwood

Amendment C271yara was submitted to the Minister for Planning on 19 December 2022 and is currently awaiting consent to publicly exhibit the Amendment.

Background

Yarra City Council is proposing to introduce permanent built form and design requirements for the activity centres of Fitzroy and Collingwood through 12 individual Design and Development Overlays (DDOs). To see where they would apply, please see the map below. The documents were considered and adopted as draft Amendment C271 on a Council Meeting on the 6 December 2022. Council is currently waiting on the consent from the Minister for Planning to exhibit the amendment with its DDOs

The permanent built form and design requirements are proposed to be introduced through an amendment to the Yarra Planning Scheme known as Draft Amendment C271yara. For the amendment to go ahead it will need to be publicly exhibited with the opportunity for anyone to make a submission. After this, it likely would need to be considered by the independent Yarra Activity Centre Standing Advisory Committee and then approved by the Minister for Planning.

The permanent built form and design requirements that Council adopted on the 6 December 2022 are outlined in the following 12 Design and Development Overlays (DDOs).

This attachment shows the general changes made to the interim DDOs.

Brunswick Street Shops (DDO29)
Smith Street Shops (DDO30)
Gertrude Street Shops (DDO31)
Johnston Street West (DDO32)
Brunswick Street Grand Residential (DDO33)
Fitzroy Town Hall and Back Blocks (DDO34)
Johnston Street South (DDO35)
Fitzroy East and Johnston Street North (DDO36)
Smith Street North and South (DDO37)
Alexandra Parade (DDO38)
Victoria Parade (DDO39)
Fitzroy West Mixed-Use Zone Precinct (DDO40)

These changes will help guide potential future development, ensuring development responds sensitively to heritage buildings and has minimal impact on existing residential properties such as backyards and public spaces like footpaths, parks and expanded street corners.

What is currently in place?

At the moment, there are temporary requirements (seven interim DDOs) that apply to the area. These will expire on 21 April 2024.

Currently, the following seven interim DDOs apply:

You can find all approved amendment documentation regarding the interim DDOs on DELWP’s website at the following links; C270yara and C288yara.

The permanent requirements that are proposed in Amendment C271 would replace these interim DDOs.

What area does this project cover?

Below is a map of the 12 areas in Fitzroy and Collingwood that this project covers. The different colours show the 12 different DDOs that Yarra has prepared:

Map of proposed design and development overlay areas

About the Project

Before 2021, there were limited planning controls in place to guide development in Fitzroy and Collingwood. There were no area-wide controls on building heights or setbacks from the street.

That is why Yarra has prepared 12 Design and Development Overlays (DDOs) for these areas.

The proposed 12 draft Design and Development Overlays aim to provide a balanced approach by guiding different levels of potential development across the Fitzroy and Collingwood activity centres, commercial and mix-use zoned properties. The Amendment aims to ensure that new buildings will be sensitive towards heritage buildings, minimising impact on sensitive residential interfaces (for example; backyards) and public spaces such as footpaths, parks and expanded street corners.

An all-inclusive approach was taken to guide potential development across the 12 different activity centres in Fitzroy and Collingwood. Creating the 12 individual Design and Development Overlays (DDOs) for each of the 12 activity centres at the same time, allowed us to consider the similarities and differences between each activity centre, and make sure the 12 DDOs are consistent.

As a result, DDOs in areas of significant heritage value generally require lower street wall heights, larger upper-level setbacks and lower heights, while areas of lesser heritage value (or areas with no heritage) allow for more flexibility.

Some DDO areas of significant heritage value require additional protection, and in these areas some of the DDO requirements are mandatory (compulsory).

All 12 DDOs require future developments to minimise the amenity impacts (i.e. overshadowing, visual bulk, overlooking) of the development upon existing neighbouring residential properties (including properties next to the DDO).

Specific building design requirements of each DDO are adjusted to recognise the unique building design, heritage and existing character of that activity centre.

What stage is this amendment at?

Council is currently in Stage 1 of the process.

There are six stages in the draft amendment process.

Diagram showing the steps of process

Under the first stage of the amendment, Council made a resolution at the Council Meeting on 6 December 2022 to seek consent from the Minister for Planning to prepare and formally exhibit the draft amendment.

The Amendment was submitted to the Minister in December 2022 and is currently awaiting a decision.

The second stage of the draft amendment process will commence shortly. The second stage is the public exhibition of the amendment. Council intends to exhibit permanent controls (the draft DDOs) for Fitzroy and Collingwood in early 2023. These controls will be put on public exhibition, where any interested party can view them and make a submission to Council.

You can find more information on Yarra’s Advisory Committee Process and Amendments on Yarra's webpage , Planning Panel’s Victoria website and on the Yarra Standing Advisory Committee - Information Sheet.

Further information

For more information, read the relevant documents here:

Council Reports