Town Planning Reports for Surf Coast Shire

Surf Coast is a coastal and tourism shire south-west of Geelong, taking in the booming township of Torquay and Jan Juc, the Great Ocean Road towns of Anglesea, Aireys Inlet and Lorne, and the inland centre of Winchelsea. It is a landscape of surf beaches, bushland, river estuaries and steep coastal hills, much of it recognised under the state's distinctive areas and landscapes program. If you are building here, your permit is decided under the Surf Coast Planning Scheme, and a town planning report is what demonstrates your proposal fits.

Surf Coast Shire Council is your responsible authority. What shapes most applications is the extensive bushfire risk across coastal and hinterland bush, the significant landscapes of the Great Ocean Road, the design controls protecting coastal character, and erosion and vegetation on the coast.

Do you need a town planning report in Surf Coast?

You need a town planning report in Surf Coast whenever your proposal triggers a planning permit under the Surf Coast Planning Scheme — most often because the land is affected by a bushfire management overlay across the shire's bush and coastal areas, sits within a significant landscape or design and development overlay along the Great Ocean Road, or carries an erosion, vegetation or environmental significance overlay. Bushfire and coastal landscape are the frequent triggers here.

What decides it is the combination of your zone, the overlays on the land, and the use or works you propose.

Common zones and overlays in Surf Coast

Township land is mostly General Residential Zone, with the Low Density Residential Zone on bush and coastal fringes where larger lots and on-site wastewater apply, and the Township Zone in smaller settlements. The Farming Zone covers extensive rural land, the Rural Conservation Zone protects environmentally sensitive coastal and hinterland country, and the Commercial 1 Zone applies to the town centres.

The overlays are what make Surf Coast distinctive. The Bushfire Management Overlay applies extensively across coastal, bush and hinterland areas because of significant bushfire risk. The Significant Landscape Overlay protects the coastal and Great Ocean Road landscapes, while the Design and Development Overlay, in several schedules, controls building height, bulk and coastal character along the coast and in town centres. The Erosion Management Overlay addresses unstable and coastal land, the Environmental Significance Overlay and Vegetation Protection Overlay protect catchments, habitat and native vegetation, the Heritage Overlay protects historic places, and the Land Subject to Inundation Overlay or Floodway Overlay apply to flood-prone and coastal-inundation land.

Figure 1: The zones across Surf Coast, and the overlays most likely to require a permit and a report — bushfire, coastal landscape and built-form design feature strongly.

Confirm your controls for free on VicPlan or a planning property report. In Surf Coast, checking for a bushfire or landscape overlay before you design can change your project significantly.

What a town planning report must address here

A Surf Coast report identifies your zone — general residential, low density, township, farming or rural conservation — and its controls, then addresses each overlay that applies. Where the Bushfire Management Overlay applies, that means a bushfire assessment with defendable space, construction standard and water supply. Where a significant landscape overlay applies, how the siting, scale, materials and colours respond to the coastal landscape. Where a design and development overlay applies, how height and built form meet the coastal-character controls. Where erosion, vegetation or flood overlays apply, the relevant response.

• ✓Zone purpose and its use and works controls
• ✓Bushfire assessment and defendable space
• ✓Coastal landscape response under the SLO
• ✓Built form and height under the design overlay
• ✓ResCode (Clause 54 or 55) siting, setbacks and amenity

Beneath the overlay responses sits ResCode — Clause 54 for a single dwelling, Clause 55 for two or more — applied to dwellings throughout the townships and on coastal and rural-residential lots.

How to lodge a planning permit with Surf Coast

Surf Coast Shire Council is the responsible authority for planning permit applications. The council provides an online facility to prepare, lodge and update planning permit applications through its website, and applications can also be lodged with the council with a completed form, plans, supporting information, a current copy of title and the prescribed fee. Straightforward proposals may run on the VicSmart ten business-day pathway. Subdivision applications are lodged through SPEAR, the state electronic system used by all Victorian councils, with a licensed surveyor as applicant.

Get your Surf Coast report ready

A town planner typically takes weeks to prepare a report. instantplanning assembles a council-ready town planning report from current Surf Coast Planning Scheme data in minutes, built around your zone and overlays — including bushfire, landscape and design controls — for you to review before lodging.

Start with the free planning permit checker, estimate fees with the permit cost calculator, or use the document checklist. For background, read do I need a planning permit in Victoria and what a town planning report is, or browse town planning reports by council — then generate your report.