Ballarat City Council has resolved to develop a consistent approach to assessing Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) for new planning applications.
Council says the policy will provide greater clarity and guidance associated with the Ballarat Planning Scheme.
An environmentally sustainable future is goal number one of the Council Plan 2021-2025.
Councillor Belinda Coates said the new policy will assist Council to contribute to an environmentally sustainable future.
“It is an important policy to ensure good quality housing and buildings that are more sustainable and efficient, not only reducing emissions, but making developments more liveable for residents,” she said.
The thresholds will be required for new residential developments, as well as non-residential developments, such as commercial buildings.
The ESD will deliver on clause 15.01-2S of the Ballarat Planning Scheme which seeks ‘to achieve building design and siting outcomes that contribute positively to the local context, enhance the public realm and support environmentally sustainable development’, Council said in a statement.
“Concurrently, the City of Ballarat is working with the Municipal Association of Victoria and the Council Alliance for Sustainable Built Environment with 31 other local governments to introduce a Planning Scheme Amendment to incorporate an ESD provision into the planning schemes,” it said.
A variety of assessment tools will be taken into consideration when assessing environmentally sustainable development, such as Green Star ratings, Built Environment Sustainability Scorecards and STORM reports.
Based on the 800 planning applications received over the last year, 148 of these applications would have been required to provide some form of ESD treatment if the policy was in place at the time, Council said.
