OPINION: ON Tuesday (April 26) afternoon Planning Minister Richard Wynne released C270, the final draft of the new central city planning laws for new developments in the CBD and Southbank.
Amendment to the interim planning controls (C262) announced in September last year, C270 is, for the most part, a step in the right direction.
There is good news:
- The rules related to spaces between buildings allow you to build against existing walls on boundaries.
- The setbacks remain fundamentally unchanged at 5m – albeit with a different means of calculation.
- Buildings over 100m can now progressively setback as they get taller.
- Wind is now assessed on average day’s not just extremely windy days.
However, the most significant change is the reduction in the plot ratio from 24:1 to 18:1. Limiting the guaranteed development on each city site, this ratio includes a clause whereby a floor area uplift bonus can be granted provided “all relevant built form parameters are met, and an appropriate public benefit is provided to share added value”. It is therefore possible to achieve 24:1 or greater – but you can’t bank on it.
The rational here being that additional floor area equates to extra commercial value, 10 per cent of which should be dedicated to public benefit. They nominate four items of public benefit:
- Laneways and parks
- Office use
- Public space in the building
- Social housing in the building
The catch here is that the council gets to decide witch “public benefit” they want – if any at all.
The impact on developers shopping for sites is nil. They will simply treat this as a tax payable if they get the additional yield and will base the site purchase on the 18:1 plot ratio.
Fundamentally, the value of a development site is determined by what you can put on it. Therefore if a developer needs to pay an additional tax to release development opportunity, they will do it. Provided of course they hadn’t already paid for it in the purchase price. In this case it will kill the project.
The biggest losers will be land owners hoping to develop their site or sell their site to a developer. In this case their land has just dropped considerably in value to make way for this new tax paid by the developer at a later date.
Notwithstanding this, the public benefit uses are valuable for the community and this is a clever mechanism to get developers to pay for them without killing development.
By Plus Architecture, Director, Craig Yelland.
Constantly pushing the envelope to deliver buildings that deliver commercial success for his clients, Craig Yelland’s industry-renowned, hard-working, high octane energy drives the fast-paced team forward to deliver exceptional projects that espouse commercial, planning and urban viability.
Australian Property Journal
