Introduction
The City of Melbourne Mayor, Robert Doyle, is one of many who have called for a set of regulations to control access to daylight, minimum apartment size and other residential apartment design standards. Many Victorians share his concern and that new apartments in Melbourne fall below an acceptable community standard. Some categorically do not agree; feeling worried that such a code will give rise to "tick a box" urban design and fearing a move towards the 2014 equivalent of the vanilla brick "flat code" of the 1960s and 1970s.
Commonly referred to as "one of the few ways that the NSW Planning System is superior to that of Victoria", the NSW SEPP 65 has functioned as NSW's Residential Flat Design Code for 12 years. It has imposed standards concerning apartment size, length of corridors within apartment buildings, access to ventilation and daylight and many others and has been implemented through the NSW Planning System.
As Victoria grapples with the idea of a residential development sector controlled by minimum standards, NSW is conducting a review of its Residential Flat Design Code. The article below has been prepared by Norton Rose Fulbright NSW planning experts, Felicity Rourke and Rosemary Bullmore and examines the various matters being contemplated in the NSW review. If Victoria is to pursue an apartment code through its planning system, it is clear that Victoria could learn a thing or two from the NSW experience.
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Greater flexibility for residential flat development: SEPP 65 Review
