A planning scheme performs a number of functions within a Councils municipal area:
The Break O' Day Council Planning Scheme 1996 (Planning Scheme) consists of a written document and a series of coloured maps with specific land use zones. These maps are not, at this stage, availble on the web, but you can check on the zoning of a property by contacting a Council Planning Officer on (03) 6376 7933.
Land use zones determine the types of development that will be considered. Each zone has a set of objectives to describe the purpose of that zone and lists the allowable 'Use Classes' for that zone.
The Planning Scheme is performanced based, therefore the onus is on the Applicant to demonstrate compliance with the scheme standards. First you need to address the Zone standards that apply to your property. Then you need to address the relevant codes that are applicable to your development. The list of codes can be found on the first couple of pages within the zoning information.
The Planning Scheme is divided into two columns of information for each standard;
Acceptable Solutions and Performance Criteria.
The aim is to get your development proposal to meet all the Acceptable Solutions that are relevant. By meeting these for every relevant standard your application will be assessed as a Permitted Use Application (Section 58 LUPAA). By submitting a Permitted Use Application you will save time and money. The Statewide average for approvals of Permitted Use applications is 16.3 days compared to the state wide average for Discretionary Applications approval of 31.7 days.
If your development is unable to meet a particular Acceptable Solution you can jump across to the right and address the Performance Criteria. The application must meet at least the Performance Criteria for each standard. If the application relies on even one (1) of the Performance Criteria then the application will be treated as a Discretionary Use Application by Council. Under Section 57 (LUPAA) this application is then advertised for fourteen days, by way of letter to adjoining property owners, site notice and advertisement in the Local Government section of the Examiner Newspaper.
Please contact Councils Planning department on (03) 6376 7933 to obtain your zone information if you do not already have this.
Once you have this information view the list of applicable schedules on the zone page.
Under section 33 of the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993, any person can ask the planning authority (Local Council) to amend it's planning scheme. Usually these requests involve a 'rezoning' - a change of zone to a piece of land. The Council can also start an amendment itself, amendments help keep the planning scheme up to date and allow flexibility to adapt new strategies or Council directions.
Once Council receives a request it has 42 days to decide if it will initiate the requested amendment, this decision is usually made by Council or the Manager of Development Services.
If this request is refused by Council, the applicant must be notified within 7 days, and the applicant can then seek the assistance of the Resource Planning and Development Commission to review the process. If this request is approved, Council has 7 days in which to notify the Commission - indicating how it intends to amend the scheme.
Break O'Day Council has recently proposed a major scheme amendment, which has been a lengthy process. The proposal was placed on public display for two months, all adjoining property owners to the proposed areas were notified by mail and the proposals were advertised the Examiner Newspaper. This period allowed for public representations to be received and considered by Council and a public hearing addressing these representations was held in Council on July 12th 2004. At this stage the proposed amendments have been submitted to the commission for their decision.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
PLANNING SCHEME INCLUDING AMENDMENT 01 2009 
(784 kb)
Guidelines for Soil and Water Management (2767 kb)
