Planning Permits & Potable Water Supply Catchments - South ...

L
ooking to use or develop land within an
open potable* water supply catchment
area
Planning Permits & Potable Water
Supply Catchments
If your property is within one of these areas,
then new guidelines may affect you!
(*drinkable)
BACKGROUND
A potable water supply catchment provides water
resources to a reservoir (or water storage) used
for domestic water supply purposes. An ‘open’,
potable water supply catchment is a catchment
where all or part of it is in private ownership and
access to the catchment is unrestricted.
Open, potable water supply catchments are declared to
be special water supply catchments under the
Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994. There are
currently nine such catchments (in full or in part) in
South Gippsland Shire. Most of these are covered by a
specific overlay within the Planning Scheme, known as
the ESO2 (Environmental Significance Overlay –
Schedule 2).
However, the Tarwin River (Meeniyan) Water Supply
Catchment, which has an area of approximately 1053
km 2 , is the largest in the Shire and is not currently
covered by such an Overlay.
The State Government has developed guidelines to
protect the quality of potable water supplies, using a
risk based approach. One of the mechanisms used to
protect the quality of water in these catchments is to
control the density of dwellings and their on-site waste
water (effluent) systems.
Council and the relevant water authority must consider
these new guidelines, Planning permit applications in
open, potable water supply catchment areas (DSE,
November 2012) when assessing Planning Permit
applications for:
using land for a dwelling,
subdividing land, or
situations where a planning permit to develop
land is required due to the Environmental
Significance Overlay.
DWELLING DENSITY
Guideline 1 refers to the density of dwellings and it
requires dwelling density to be no greater than one
dwelling per 40 hectares (1:40 ha) within the catchment.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)
and the Victorian Supreme Court have both stated that
when considering applications in open, potable water
supply Catchment areas, risk to human health is highly
relevant, and, because of its serious nature, must be
given priority over other planning objectives.
There are currently four categories of exemptions from
Guideline 1, although these are not currently available
in this Shire for the Tarwin River (Meeniyan)
Catchment.
The Victorian Water Association (VicWater) has also
released a guideline (February 2013) which assists in
calculating dwelling density using a 1km radius method.
This method has been generally acknowledged by
VCAT and adopted by some water authorities.
PTO for frequently asked questions
Last updated 22/05/2013

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does this mean if my property is in the
catchment
If you already use, or have developed your property the
guidelines should not affect you or your property in any
significant way. However, if you require a planning
permit for any of the matters listed previously, then this
may affect you.
Currently, the most common applications that are
affected by the guidelines are for the use of dwellings in
the Farming Zone on lots of less than 40 hectares;
however, you may also be affected in other
circumstances.
If you are unsure if your proposal will be affected, you
can call Council’s Statutory Planning Department on
(03) 5662 9200 to find out.
If I require a permit, what does this mean
If you require a planning permit then the guidelines will
need to be addressed in your application. The
application will be referred to the relevant water
authority (South Gippsland Water Corporation and/or
Gippsland Water in this Shire) under Section 55 of the
Planning and Environment Act 1987 and it will be
assessed according to the guideline.
If my application does not comply with the
guideline what does this mean
If your application does not comply with the guideline
(particularly Guideline 1) then Council or the relevant
water authority may refuse to issue a permit. If the
water authority refuses consent to issue the permit, the
Council has no power to issue it.
What are my options
If your application does not comply with the guideline
and Council or the water authority is likely to refuse the
permit on that basis, then you have two options:
Council can issue a notice of refusal for the
application, stating its reasons and those of any
other authority. You have the right to appeal this
decision to VCAT; or
You may wish to withdraw or withhold your
application until Council and the relevant water
authority are able to explore viable options.
What are Council and the relevant water authority
doing
Council and the relevant water authority have
commenced exploring viable options under the four
categories of exemptions to Guideline 1. Each of the
options is potentially costly and would require significant
resources to implement.
Council will release further updates on the matter when
progress is made.
Where can I get a copy of the DSE and VicWater
guidelines
Council’s website contains a link to both guidelines on
its front page www.southgippsland.vic.gov.au and under
the Statutory Planning section.
If you have any queries in the meantime please contact
the Statutory Planning Department on (03) 5662 9200.
Figure 1: Map of Catchment Area
Last updated 22/05/2013