PPN91: Using the residential zones

The residential zones

The Victoria Planning Provisions (VPP) contains a suite of standard residential zones for statewide application. These are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: The role and application of the residential zones

Principles underpinning the residential zones

Principle 1

Housing change areas need to align with other strategic work to provide a residential development framework that clearly identifies future outcomes for an area.

Clear alignment of housing change areas with other strategic work ensures certainty for community and industry as to how housing growth and competing local objectives will be balanced with accessibility to jobs, public transport and community facilities and services to meet housing targets.

Principle 2

All residential zones support and allow increased housing inside established settlement boundaries, unless environmental constraints or special characteristics exist.

Planning for housing growth should recognise that serviced urban land within settlement boundaries, such as the Urban Growth Boundary, is limited. To avoid further urban sprawl, planning authorities need to plan for increased housing in all locations within settlement boundaries unless environmental constraints or special characteristics like heritage, neighbourhood character and landscape significance exist.

Principle 3

The Housing Choice and Transport Zone promotes varied housing growth and supports lot consolidation around activity centres and well-serviced locations, close to employment, services and trains and trams.

The Housing Choice and Transport Zone promotes housing growth of three to six storeys and supports lot consolidation by allowing higher building heights on larger sites. Maximum building heights are fixed by the zone and cannot be varied through a schedule to the zone.

Principle 4

The Residential Growth Zone promotes housing growth in locations close to jobs, services and facilities serviced by public transport including activity centres.

While the Residential Growth Zone promotes greater housing intensification up to four storeys, it can also be used to facilitate taller residential development by specifying a maximum building height greater than 13.5 metres in the schedule to the zone.

Principle 5

The General Residential Zone is a three-storey zone with a maximum building height of 11 metres.

The General Residential Zone should be applied to areas where housing development of three storeys exists or is planned for. It is inappropriate to apply the General Residential Zone to areas where a planning authority seeks to protect the existing single and double storey character of an area.

Principle 6

The density or number of dwellings on a lot cannot be restricted in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone unless environmental constraints or special characteristics exist.

Dwelling density is not a suitable basis for restricting development outcomes in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone. Specific tools such as overlays should be used instead to restrict the number of dwellings in areas where environmental constraints or special characteristics like heritage, neighbourhood character and landscape significance exist.

Applying the right residential zone

Planning schemes in Victoria are strategically focused and driven. Any planning control should have a clear reason to be imposed and be based on achieving a strategic, amenity or design outcome.

Residential zones must implement the municipal-wide residential development framework plan, a Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS). The MPS should be developed in response to relevant state and regional planning policies in the Planning Policy Framework (PPF).

This process for how the strategic planning and statutory implementation processes work to provide for housing change is shown in Figure 1. See Figures 2 and 3 for an example of how a residential development framework plan can be implemented using the residential zones.

There is no ‘default’ residential zone to be applied to a residential area in Victoria.

All seven residential zones can be applied to residential land in a municipality, as appropriate.

There is no prescribed percentage for how much land in a municipality should be in each residential zone. Residential zones should be applied to locations consistent with the residential framework plan and the level of housing change envisaged.

A choice about which residential zone to apply will always need to be made. This choice must be based on the strategic outcomes being sought by the MPS and PPF, including providing sufficient capacity to achieve local housing targets.

The ‘test’ is whether the residential zones implement the residential development framework plan in the MPS.

The right residential zone will reflect the true development capacity of land. If land is impacted by environmental constraints that are identified in the MPS and PPF, then a residential zone should be applied that aligns with these attributes or constraints. If land has special characteristics such as specific character or heritage, then zones and policies should resolve these competing objectives in a way that will deliver the municipality’s housing target.

Applying the right residential zone also provides the opportunity to apply local requirements to achieve preferred built form outcomes identified in the MPS and local policies.

Table 2: Aligning housing change areas and residential zones

Housing targets and residential zones

The Housing Capacity Assessment Platform (HCAP) should be used by planning authorities to determine if the residential zones applied to the municipality meet the housing targets specified in the PPF. HCAP is designed for use by the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) and local government strategic planners. Access to HCAP is provided through DTP at planforvictoria@transport.vic.gov.au.

Building heights and zone selection

One of the key features of the residential zones is the different maximum building height for each zone. This is a key factor to consider when selecting a residential zone to give effect to housing objectives.

As a general principle, applying a residential zone should align with either existing building heights if minimal or incremental housing change is planned for, or align with future building heights where substantial housing change is identified in strategic work.

When a varied maximum building height is sought to be specified in a schedule to a residential zone it should not exceed the maximum building height of a zone with the next highest maximum building height, unless the existing built form of the area warrants a unique approach.

For example, allowing an 11 metre / three-storey height to be specified in the NRZ would be inconsistent with the purpose of the NRZ. However, allowing the maximum building height to be increased to 10 or 11 metres may be appropriate to recognise the characteristics of existing double storey housing in an NRZ area.

The GRZ has a maximum building height of 11 metres and three storeys. It is important to remember that through the building system, a single dwelling can be constructed to a height of 11 metres and three storeys in the GRZ without the need to obtain a planning permit. If applying the GRZ, this should be considered.

Similarly, the GRZ is unlikely to be the best zone to apply to areas where new development of more than three storeys is planned for, as taller development is unlikely to be responsive to the purpose of the GRZ about neighbourhood character. A zone that promotes increased housing without reference to neighbourhood character in its purpose like the RGZ or HCTZ is likely to be a better fit.

After selecting the zones to apply, check that they align with the strategic work undertaken and any strategic objectives.

Table 3: Maximum building height matrix

The role of overlays and maximum building height

A maximum building height lower than the maximum building height specified in a residential zone can only be implemented by using an overlay to recognise environmental constraints or special characteristics.

In such cases, the height requirement in the overlay applies in addition to the height requirement in the zone.

The role of local objectives

While state, regional and local planning policy sets out how discretion should be exercised, the ability to specify local objectives in some residential schedules enables detailed expression to be given to desired neighbourhood, heritage, environmental, landscape or design outcomes to be responded to within a particular area, when the residential development standards of clauses 54, 55 and 57 are not met.

The Minister’s Direction - The Form and Content of Planning Schemes only allows a maximum of five objectives to be expressed in a schedule to a residential zone.

Table 5: Operation of local objectives

Writing objectives

Clear differentiation between neighbourhood character and design objectives is essential to ensure that schedules are applied consistently.

Neighbourhood character objectives articulate the valued characteristics of an area and provide the basis for variation of particular clause 54 and clause 55 standards, where justified.

Design objectives specify the preferred built form and urban design outcomes for new development.

Writing neighbourhood character objectives

The schedules to the TZ, GRZ and NRZ enable neighbourhood character objectives to be specified.

Objectives in the schedule to the NRZ should specify the relevant neighbourhood character, heritage, environmental or landscape characteristics of the area.

Objectives in the schedule to the TZ should specify the neighbourhood character attributes to be achieved.

Objectives in the schedule to the GRZ should specify the attributes of the neighbourhood character to be achieved, in the context of a preferred built form outcome of three storeys.

Writing design objectives

Design objectives can specify matters related to built form and urban design. Design objectives should only specify public realm matters where they relate to the design of buildings that affect the function and amenity of the public realm.

Objectives in the schedule to the RGZ should specify the preferred design and built form outcomes for new residential development.

Preferred character statement or local objective?

Preferred neighbourhood character statements derived from neighbourhood character strategies are often found in local policies.

Rather than specifying preferred neighbourhood character statements in local planning policy, objectives can be specified in a schedule to a residential zone. This approach provides for a more transparent spatial representation of preferred neighbourhood character.

It is generally not necessary to have both a preferred character statement and local neighbourhood character objectives.

Table 6: Translating a preferred neighbourhood character statement into neighbourhood character objectives

What happens where an overlay exists or is proposed?

It is not necessary to be as detailed or explicit when writing objectives for the desired outcome in the schedule to the zone affected by an existing or proposed overlay. The overlay should instead contain the detailed neighbourhood character, built form, heritage, environmental, landscape or other objectives as relevant to the land.

Heritage Overlay

Where a HO exists over a precinct or an area, as opposed to an individual site, it is unnecessary to identify detailed heritage objectives through the schedule to the relevant residential zone.

It is enough to generally specify in the schedule to the zone that the objective to be achieved is derived from the heritage values of the area. Often it is clearest to apply the same schedule to all heritage areas within that zone, within a municipality.

Design, built form, neighbourhood character, environmental, landscape and other overlays

All these overlays require some form of statement of significance or risk along with specifying detailed objectives.

In all these instances, it is generally enough to specify the relevant characteristic that is being sought to be recognised and rely on the detailed objectives and statements of significance in the overlay to articulate the desired outcome.

Minimum garden area requirement

A minimum garden area requirement is a mandatory requirement that applies to all lots in the NRZ and GRZ that are 400 square metres or more.

A minimum percentage of the land must be set aside for a garden area at ground level in accordance with the table below.

Table 7: Minimum garden area requirement

The minimum garden area requirement cannot be exempted through a schedule in the NRZ. The minimum garden area requirement can be exempted through the schedule to the GRZ.

The decision to exempt the minimum garden area requirement in the GRZ must be based on the strategic outcomes being sought by the PPF and MPS. For example, it may be appropriate to exempt the minimum garden area requirement in the GRZ where a planning authority is seeking to recognise existing development conditions or to promote a denser urban form of housing than currently exists to achieve housing growth objectives.

Minimum subdivision area

A minimum subdivision area may only be specified in the schedule to the LDRZ or the NRZ.

Specifying a minimum lot size in the NRZ provides another mechanism to limit new housing because of environmental constraints or special characteristics, and when the area is categorised as a minimal change area.

Table 8: Minimum subdivision area

Varying the residential development standards

A schedule to the MUZ, TZ, RGZ, GRZ and NRZ enables the following key siting and amenity standards of clause 54 and clause 55 to be varied if it can be strategically justified:

• Standard A2-1 (clause 54.02) and Standard B2-1 (clause 55.02) Street setback
• Standard A2-5 (clause 54.02) and B2-5 (clause 55.02) Site coverage
• Standard A3-2 (clause 54.03) and B3-5 (clause 55.03) Private open space
• Standard A2-7 (clause 54.02) and B2-8 (clause 55.02) Front fences.

Except for a front fence, a local variation must be more permissive than the standard.

How do the varied standards operate?

An important feature of the schedules to the residential zones is that a change to a value in the schedule will affect all dwellings in the schedule, whether a planning permit is required or not. When a local value is specified in a schedule, the value replaces the relevant value in both planning scheme (the clause 54 and clause 55 standard), and in the corresponding building regulation.

Figure 4 below illustrates an example of how a schedule variation would interact with the building regulation and clauses 54 and 55.

When assessing a building permit application, a building practitioner must use the value in the schedule to the residential zone, instead of the value expressed in the relevant building regulation. Schedule 6 to the Building Regulations identifies which planning schemes have schedules that specify a local value.

When assessing a planning permit application, the varied standard continues to be read with the relevant standard in clause 54 and clause 55. The schedule simply substitutes one value for another. The remainder of the standard in clause 54 and clause 55 continues to apply.

When a new residential zone that is not currently used in the planning scheme is proposed, and a clause 54 standard is proposed to be varied, a consequential amendment to Schedule 6 to the Building Regulations is also necessary. This is required to apply the planning scheme change to a single dwelling that does not require a planning permit in the new residential zone.

If the schedule to the building regulations is not amended to reference the new residential zone in the planning scheme, the varied standard will not apply to a single dwelling that does not require a planning permit.

This is undesirable because it adds complexity and confusion to the application of the standards between the two approval systems.

Writing varied standards

The schedule cannot be used to vary the objective or decision guideline of the relevant standard in clause 54 and clause 55.

It is not possible to apply different standards for different types of residential development in the schedule, except for:

• Standards A2-1 and B2-1 (street setback)
• Standards A2-5 and B2-5 (Site coverage), and
• Standards A3-2 and B3-5 (Private open space).

When varying clause 54 and clause 55 standards in the schedule, it is important to use the existing standard to determine what value can be substituted or varied. The substituted value may be a dimension, area, distance or percentage.

It is important to ensure that the variation can be understood without reference to the state standard or relevant building regulation. See Table 9 below for examples. Variations to clause 54 standards must be clear and legible for a building practitioner when issuing a building permit for one dwelling on a lot that does not require a planning permit.

Any omission of text or values between the clause 54 and clause 55 standard and the variation may have unintended consequences. It is therefore important that the variation uses the format and language of the relevant standard to ensure that there is no confusion.

Only the numerical value of the relevant standard should be changed. The schedule cannot be used to apply a different value to only some land in the zone because the building regulations refer to the application of the variation uniformly throughout the zone. A building certifier’s point of reference is what the land is zoned in the planning scheme.

Table 9: Drafting clause 54 and clause 55 variations - examples

Maximum building height

Maximum building height is managed in different ways, according to the role and purpose of each residential zone.

A schedule must not specify a height or number of storeys lower than the height and number of storeys specified in the zone. Only one maximum building height and number of storeys (where applicable) may be specified in each schedule.

The maximum building height only applies to a dwelling or residential building, except in the MUZ where it applies to all buildings.

The maximum building height is always mandatory when specified in a schedule to the TZ, MUZ, RGZ, GRZ and NRZ.

The mandatory maximum building height cannot be varied in a schedule to the HCTZ.

A schedule to the GRZ or NRZ should specify a maximum building height in both metres and storeys. A schedule to the MUZ, TZ and RGZ should only specify a maximum building height in metres.

If a higher discretionary maximum building height is sought in the RGZ, the schedule should not be used as specifying a maximum building height in the schedule makes the maximum building height mandatory. If a discretionary maximum building height greater than 13.5 metres is sought in the RGZ, another VPP tool such as a local policy or overlay should be used to specify an appropriate discretionary maximum building height above 13.5 metres.

The operation of maximum building heights and number of storeys in the residential zones is set out in Table 10.

Table 10: Operation of maximum building heights and number of storeys

* A large site means:

• A lot with an area of at least 1000 square metres and a frontage of at least 20 metres; or
• Two or more contiguous lots with a combined area of at least 1000 square metres and a combined frontage of at least 20 metres.

Writing application requirements and decision guidelines

Application requirements set out information and other materials required to accompany a planning permit application. The HCTZ does not have a schedule.

A schedule may specify additional application requirements to supplement those in a residential zone. A schedule should not repeat application requirements in other planning provisions. Application requirements should have a clear nexus with the provisions of the schedule, and not require information about matters that are not controlled by a schedule to a residential zone.

Decision guidelines provide greater certainty about decision making for planning permit applications.

A schedule may specify additional decision guidelines to supplement those in a residential zone. A schedule should not repeat general decision guidelines, or decision guidelines in other planning provisions. Decision guidelines should have a clear nexus with the provisions of the schedule.

Some principles for drafting decision guidelines are included in Table 11.

Table 11: Principles for drafting decision guidelines - examples

Page last updated: 29/01/26