Do you need a planning permit, or just a building permit?
They are different approvals, from different bodies, answering different questions — and the order matters. Getting this wrong is the most expensive mistake an owner-builder makes, because it is usually discovered after the plans are drawn.
Two approvals, not one
Planning permit
Issued by the council under the planning scheme. Asks whether the use and development are appropriate here at all — zone, overlays, neighbourhood character, amenity impacts on neighbours. Not every project needs one.
Building permit
Issued by a building surveyor under the building regulations. Asks whether what you are building is structurally sound and compliant. Effectively always required, and separate from your owner-builder Certificate of Consent, which comes from the Victorian Building Authority.
Where a planning permit is required it generally comes first, because the building surveyor will want to see it and because a planning outcome can change the design. Drawing full working drawings before you know the planning position is how owner-builders end up paying for two sets.
What triggers a planning permit
An overlay on the land
Heritage, bushfire, flooding, significant landscape, vegetation, design and development. Overlays apply to the land regardless of what the zone permits, and are the most common reason an otherwise straightforward project needs a permit.
Small lots
Whether a single dwelling needs a permit depends on the zone and the schedule to it, and lot size is usually the switch. The schedule governs — it is lot-specific, not a state-wide number.
More than one dwelling
A second dwelling on the lot moves the assessment from Clause 54 to Clause 55 and almost always needs a permit, unless it falls within the small second dwelling exemption below.
Removing vegetation
Clause 52.37 (Canopy Trees, VC289) and Clause 52.17 (Native Vegetation) apply independently of the building work, as do VPO/SLO/ESO schedules and council Local Law.
Earthworks and retaining
Cut and fill can be caught by an overlay even where the dwelling itself is not.
A restriction on title
A covenant or a Section 173 agreement can prohibit outright what the planning scheme would allow. Read the title before you design.
The small second dwelling exemption
A small second dwelling of 60 m² gross floor area or less needs no planning permit in the residential zones, following Amendment VC243. That is a genuine exemption and a real opportunity for an owner-builder.
Two things it does not do. A permit is still required in the Green Wedge and Rural Conservation zones. And a building permit is always required regardless — the exemption is from planning only.
Garden area is not negotiable
Minimum garden area is a mandatory zone control — Clause 32.08-4 in the General Residential Zone, 32.09 in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone, 32.07 in the Residential Growth Zone. Unlike most of ResCode, there is no discretion here: a permit cannot be granted below the minimum, and it applies to a single dwelling just as much as to multi-dwelling development.
- 400–500 m² → 25%
- 501–650 m² → 30%
- Over 650 m² → 35%
Lots of 400 m² or less, and apartment developments, are exempt.
Garden area counts every open, non-building part of the lot — lawn, gardens, paving, even a swimming pool. Only buildings, the driveway and areas set aside for car parking are excluded. Design to it from the start; it is not something to negotiate later.
Start with the land, not the plans
The free snapshot returns the zone and every overlay on the address. The $39 Planning Insight goes further and reads the actual schedules for that lot — what they control, and what your project would have to answer.
General information about the Victorian planning system, not advice on a particular project. What applies to your land depends on its zone, the overlay schedules affecting it, any restriction on title and the works proposed.