Planning schemes refer to a large range of things, including limits on how tall a building can be, as well as ensuring orderly and sustainable use of land.
Every local government municipality in Victoria has a planning scheme to govern the use, development and protection of its land, underpinned by current and future needs. These in part vary from one municipality to another. There is state standard content and additional content can be prepared by a local council or the Minister for Planning and then approved by the Minister.
You can read more about planning schemes on the Department of Transport and Planning External link.
The Melbourne Planning Scheme External link covers land in the City of Melbourne municipality. It contains state and local planning policies, zones and overlays and other provisions that affect how land can be used and developed.
Section 12B of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 requires Council to regularly review the Melbourne Planning Scheme to assess whether the Scheme implements state policy and to evaluate the overall performance of local policies, zones, overlays and schedules. The Melbourne Planning Scheme Review Report 2023 (PDF 649 KB) was approved by the Future Melbourne Committee at its meeting on 5 December 2023 with the findings of the review reported to the Minister for Planning.
