VicPlan help

Access VicPlan directly, or via the Planning Schemes Online website.

The search box in VicPlan will accommodate many search types, ie. Property address, Lot & Plan, a locality or even a Crown Land descriptor.  A full list of all the VicPlan search types are available below. Note: some search types require a certain format, so refer to the examples in the list.

Start by typing in the search box, then select the result you require from the suggestion list that appears. The area will be shown highlighted on the map and the details will also be displayed in the information panel to the left of the map.

VicPlan search types

1. Address (includes proposed) eg. 21 Smith Avenue Thomastown 3074
2. Parcel or Lot on Plan (includes proposed) eg. 7\RP4959
3. Parcel property number eg. P204293
4. Property LGA Number eg. 124207
5. Lot on Street eg. Lot 1 Smith Avenue Croydon
6. Street eg. Smith Street Albert Park
7. Locality eg. Albert Park
8. Parish eg. Moorpanyal
9. Postcode eg. 3188
10. Local Government Area eg. Bayside
11. Heritage Inventory Site name, eg. Royal Park Hospital Precinct
12. Heritage Inventory Number, eg. H7822-0436
13. Heritage Register Number eg. H1926
14. Heritage Register Site Name eg. Braille Library & Hall
15. Heritage Inventory Hermes Number eg. 13925
16. Heritage Register Hermes Number eg. 11566
17. Crown Land, use combination of Allot, Sec, Sub, Por, Blk with Parish name, eg. Parish Ararat Allot 1 Sec 15A

If you do not see the result you want in the suggestion list, either keep typing more of the details or backspace and alter the details slightly. The suggestion list will change as you change your input. Please note that only the top five predictive results are shown in the suggestion list and they appear alphabetically.

Example below: If you are looking for 8 Nicholson Street East Melbourne, simply type as much of the address to make it distinguishable from similar addresses. Notice as you type more of the address it narrows down and highlights (in bold text) the matched components of the address. You can use abbreviations, ie. St for Street and it will included the in the search but not be in bold, as it's not an exact match.

If you don’t know any of these details, browse the map by clicking and dragging the map to a location. You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the map. You can double-click on the map to zoom in or use the plus and minus buttons in the top-left to zoom in or out.

Point and click at a location to see a list of property and parcel options in the information panel to the left of the map, see below. You can then choose the property of interest just by clicking on it and it will be centred in the map with details shown in the information panel.

A Planning Property Report provides you with all the zone and overlay information for the selected property or parcel, along with a series of maps and links to the relevant sections of the local planning scheme, in a downloadable file.

Method 1: Use the search tool to find a property and it will highlight it on the map.The Property Information panel will display the property and planning details, then simply click on the ‘Create Planning Property Report’ button.

Method 2: You can also zoom into an area and select a property on the map with your mouse, then choose either Property or Parcel. The Property Information panel will display the property and planning details, then simply click on the ‘Create Planning Property Report’ button

Click the ‘Create Planning Property Report’ and the report will open in a new tab in your browser.

Note: A Planning Property Report cannot be generated on proposed Properties or Parcels, these appear as black hatching and cross-hatching on the map.

Create a Planning Property Report

• Start entering a property address in VicPlan and select the one you want from the suggestion list that appears.
• The map will zoom to the property location and the property details appear in the information panel. Select the Create Planning Property Report button from the information panel, this will generate a Planning Property Report.
• The report contains bushfire controls that may affect your property, namely the Bushfire Management Overlay in the Planning Overlays section of the report and the Bushfire Prone Area in the Designated Bushfire Prone Areas section.

Or,

View the map

• Locate your property either by the search method above or simply use the mouse to zoom & pan to the location in the map. If the search method does not list your property, enter an established road name nearby and zoom in or out to locate your property.
• Open the Layers tab (bottom left tab of VicPlan) and follow the steps below;

1. Turn off the Planning Scheme folder
2. Open (+) and turn on the Bushfire folder
3. If the BMO and BPA layers exist in your area they will be displayed on the map.
4. Bushfire controls will apply if the BMO or BPA layers intersect your property.

Only the top five predictive searches are shown, and they are displayed alphabetically. If the address you are looking for isn't listed, keep typing and it should appear as the options narrow. Tip: As there are many streets with the same name you may need to add the first letter of the street type or add the suburb to find the unique address you're looking for. For example, 10 Smith St Collingwood.

A parcel an individual piece of land that can be sold separately, and is also known as a lot. It usually has one proprietor or owner. An example of a parcel descriptor is 1\LP23402.

A property is land, typically identified by a street address or a rate assessment number, that is under common occupation for the purpose of rating, billing or habitation. A property can be made up of one parcel or contain many parcels, or be one part of a parcel or parcels. An example of a property address is 23 Diamond Avenue Glen Waverley 3150.

This VicPlan feature produces a map with distances shown between the BPA and property boundaries. The BPA Definition Plan is only available for properties that are partially impacted by the BPA in situations where the BPA does not coincide with a property title boundary. The new tool is available in the Tools tab of the main toolbar. Below is an example of a BPA Definition Plan and the steps to create one.

Steps

1. Click the Definition Plan button in the Tools tab of the main toolbar.
2. Choose the Bushfire Prone Areas (BPA) option and click Next.
3. Choose either Address or Parcel search, enter the property details, choose the appropriate option from the suggestion list and finally click Search.
4. VicPlan will check if the property is partially covered by the BPA or not.
   • If it is, enter your email and click Submit. You'll receive the BPA Definition Plan in PDF format via email within a few minutes.
   • If it is not, the message 'Cannot Submit' will appear. This means the property is either fully covered by the BPA or not impacted by the BPA at all. You can check the BPA status on a property by either producing a Planning Property Report or viewing the property and BPA interactively via VicPlan.

To produce a Planning Property Report search for your property in the search box. Once you've selected it from the suggestion list it will display on the map and the planning details will appear in the information panel to the left of the map. Simply click on the button 'Create Planning Property Report' and the PDF report will open in a new browser tab.

To check the BPA interactively simply turn on the 'BPA - Bushfire Prone Areas' layer from VicPlan's layer control panel under the Bushfire folder. Then search for your property in the search box to locate it on the map. You may need to zoom out a little if no BPA areas appear. Below is a typical view of the BPA layer and property boundaries.

The BPA History layer was introduced into VicPlan in version 2.2.7. This map layer is located under the Bushfire folder in the layer control. It contains historic Bushfire Prone Areas from 2005. To view these historic layers, locate your area of interest on the map, make sure the map scale is within 1:100,000 and turn on the BPA History layer. Click on the Time Slider button on the main toolbar above the map and expand the options. Next select More settings and change the Time Slider Profile to BPA History. The BPA History layer will now display on the map and you can step forward or back to view the BPA at any point in time.

The example below shows the BPA as it was in 2013-2014. Specific dates are stored in each polygon as attributes and are also displayed on the map when zoomed into at 1:1,250 map scale, see the second example below.

In VicPlan release 2.2.3 you can view historic planning scheme zones, overlays, amendments and associated property boundaries.To do this go to the property of interest by using the search tool. From the layer control panel, turn off the current Planning Scheme and Property layers and turn on the Historic Planning Scheme and Historic Property layers. Next, click on the Time Slider tool and change the time slider to different points in time. If there have been changes in your area of interest the map will change according to the time slider dates.

You can also view a time extent by changing the Time Mode in the Time Slider 'More Settings'. This will allow you to choose two dates, ie. from Date1 to Date2, rather than just a single point in time. You can also step forward and backward or play Timeline to animate change over time.

Historic views of the Planning Scheme Amendments have be preset into 3 years of Zone and Overlay Amendments. Just expand the Historical Amendments folder in the layer control panel and turn on either Zone Amendments or Overlay Amendments. Both these layers have the last 3 years of amendments colour coded.

VPP Planning Scheme historical record information is available on the Planning Schemes Online website.

VicPlan also provides access to Historic Zoning Maps from 1954, 1959, 1968 and 1985. These layers are available under the Planning Scheme folder in the group 'Historic Zoning Maps'

Zones and overlays are only visible at a scale view of 1:25,000 or lower. Zoom in to see them.

Each planning zone and overlay shown on the screen can be selected by clicking the 'Layer list' in the toolbar or the 'Layers' tab in the Property Information Panel, you can select individual Planning Scheme Zones, Planning Scheme Overlays, Local Government Area Layer, Properties Layer or the base map to personalise the layers that you wish to see on the map.

If you are unable to find the zone or overlay you wish to turn on or off, use the 'Filter' search bar in the 'Layer list' to change the colour transparency.

The toolbar buttons and 'Layer list' will update the zones and overlays for the entire state. This means that the selection control applies to the whole state, not to only what you see on the map to allow a user to zoom in and out with the zone and overlays selected.

Remember: that the zones or overlays do not default back to the original view once you have made your selection. You must reselect any of the individual layers that have been turned off to return to the original default view.

Every planning scheme zone and overlay control has a unique code that is a combination of colour, text and numbers.

When an address search is performed, the Property Information panel will populate with the Planning Scheme Zone or Overlay, its colour on the map, the zone code and its corresponding ordinance documentation.

For more information about zone and overlay codes, visit the Planning Schemes Online help section.

VicPlan uses four types of base maps, which you can select from the 'Map' icon or from the 'Layer list'. These can be used interchangeably depending on what you would like to view on the map.

• Colour - is the default base map
• Greyscale - this is a Mapscape base map designed to provide more opportunity for better zone or overlay comparison to the base map. This base is available up to a 1:5,000 scale.
• Aerial - this shows the map with satellite imagery. Allows you to see different landscapes on the map e.g. vegetation.
• Hybrid - this allows you to view map and aerial imagery at the same time. Select Hybrid and Aerial in the 'Layer list' to view Hybrid.

Yes, to allow greater visibility of zone and overlay colours, the base map can be viewed in greyscale. Transparency sliders are also available to weaken or strengthen the colours.

You can only click on a location when zones and overlays are visible – at a scale of 1:25,000 or lower.

Point your cursor to the site and click once to bring up property and parcel options in the left-hand panel.

Once you have selected a property or parcel, links to all the relevant sections of the local planning scheme for each zone and overlay will appear in the Property/Parcel Information Panel.

The ‘Identify’ icon provides more information about a selected property or location. This includes the zones, overlay or LGA layer. The Property Information Panel will provide a selection based on what information is within the point selected.

It is also possible to right click on a location from within the map to ‘Find data on the map’ to retrieve similar data and also retrieve the latitude and longitude coordinate.

The mark-up tools are great to use for placing marks or text on to the map for emphasis. These tools allow highlighting and drawing on the map. These can be edited and cleared from the map as you use them.

There are many different shapes, colours and text that can be used to place mark-ups on to your map. These can also be printed using the ‘Export Map’ function in the ‘Basic Tools’ tab or exported into a Shapefile using the ‘Export Drawings’ icon.

Remember: If you wish to use a different function in the other tabs, re-click the button of the feature you are using to return to a zoom and pan mode.

There are two ways to measure areas of features on the map, you can use the auto measure or free hand methods listed below.

1. Auto Measure of Area

The simplest way to get the area of a property (or other map feature) just select the property on the map, select the item in the information panel and choose the 'Measure Area' option. The dimensions and area of the property will be displayed on the map, see the example in the image below. To remove the area measurements from the map use the 'Clear' button in the Tools tab.

2. Free hand measure

Measure tools allow you to measure distances between points or determine the area for a certain location.

By enabling snapping during the use of these functions, you can snap the line you draw to a layer that you choose so you can be more accurate with your drawing and measuring.

You can also print out the measurement drawn on the map by using the ‘Export Map’ function in the basic tools tab.

Remember: If you wish to use a different function in the other tabs, re-click the button of the feature you are using to return to a zoom and pan mode.

From the Tools tab in the main toolbar select the Distance button and the option(s) below that best suits your need.

• Measure – Place the cursor over the start point and click the mouse, then move to the end point and ‘double’ click to complete the distance measure.
• Multiple measurements - Place the cursor over the start point and click the mouse, move to the next point and use a ‘single’ click for each intermediate measure required, finally a ‘double’ click to complete the total distance.
• Accurate measure – Turn on the Enable Snapping button, this will change the cursor and allow measurements to snap to features on the map and be more accurate. Use the Select Snapping Layers button to choose specific layers for accurate measurements.
• 

This function allows you to produce an image or PDF file of what is visible on your map and download it. After selecting ‘Print’ and reviewing the options available, click ‘Print’ to generate a file.

You can change what part of the map is included in the file by unticking the ‘Lock print preview with map’ option and adjusting the map by panning and zooming to the desired area.

Zone and overlays spatial map data is updated weekly, generally on Thursday.