This decision of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (“VCAT”) involved six applications for planning permits under the local Planning Scheme for the construction of sea-side apartments. The applications related to land within a Farming Zone near the township of Toora, Victoria. In rejecting the applications, VCAT considered relevant policy considerations including potential risks of sea level rise and flooding.

VCAT found that a residential development in this rural area was incompatible with the Local and State Planning Policy Frameworks and the Farming Zone. The permits were denied. VCAT also considered sea level rise and flooding issues to be a factor.

• Before granting a permit a responsible authority must consider any significant effects which the authority considers the development may have on the environment, and any effects the environment may have on the use of development; (see Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) section 60(1)(e)).

• The Tribunal applied a precautionary approach, noting that despite there being no established method for accounting for climate change impacts or sea level rise in planning decisions, they should be considered in accordance with the facts of each case.

• In this case the measures put in place to protect against the dangers of sea level rise were deemed insufficient.

• The full decision is available on Austlii