State planning laws- Ruining lives and stalling development

Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Victoria

Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture

14 July 2020

Member for Polwarth Richard Riordan, has today launched a campaign to find out how many people and families in regional Victoria are having their economic future and family turned upside down by rigid Victorian planning overlays and rules that ignore the needs of local communities.

Following the devastating story of Damian Costin and his family who now find themselves with a worthless block of land, Mr Riordan has put the call out to find other families in the same situation.

The Costin family purchased a premium block of land with a planning permit in the Otways in 2017. The Costin family have fallen foul of changes made following the 2009 Bushfire Royal Commission which actively discourages development in some of our most sought after locations.

Like many families the Costins have paid rates and invested time and energy into their country home dream. No amount of fulfilling obligations and requirements regarding safety and the environmental concerns can beat many of Victoria’s new regulations

The Costins are not alone. Right across regional Victoria, people seeking to develop land that they have owned for some time are finding that at times obscure zoning and planning changes have been made, that now render land they have paid rates on for many years as worthless.

Now in a Covid-19 world, many people will look to make a sea and tree change which will provide great opportunities for many small rural communities. We cannot have ill thought one size fits all planning schemes holding back appropriate developments.

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