Balancing Planning Requirements

The Future Homes exemplar designs go above and beyond current planning requirements by including mandatory requirements for:

• bicycle parking for residents and visitors
• a 7.5 star NatHERS average rating across the development, with no one apartment less than 6.5 stars
• the development to achieve at least a Built Environment Scorecard (BESS) overall score of 70 percent: an ‘Excellence’ score
• enhanced spatial requirements, to provide for family-friendly living
• design enhancements so people can age in place gracefully
• the sizes of bedrooms and living rooms
• room depth distances
• communal open space
• all apartments to achieve effective natural ventilation
• canopy cover and deep soil.

Future Homes also recognises the need to carefully balance high quality, liveable and sustainable apartments with commercial viability and in order to enable this, has adjusted some planning requirements, these include:

• streamlining the permit application process for a Future Homes adapted designs enabled through Clause XX of the relevant planning schemes
• front setbacks guided by the predominant street setback rather than the two properties that directly adjoin.
• 5% increase to site coverage
• judging the side setback by its impact on neighbouring amenity rather than by strict numeric compliance
• reducing requirements for on-site car parking