Its membership entirely consists of Councillors which considers and determines planning permit applications which have been called in by a Councillor.

Planning Committee Terms of Reference

An updated Planning Committee Terms of Reference was considered and approved by Council at its meeting on 28 October 2025. The main changes in the Terms of Reference include:

• to reflect the new ward structure, the ward Councillor, a second Councillor and the Committee Chairperson (or the Mayor where the Committee Chairperson is the ward Councillor) are all required to agree to an application to be called in;
• increasing the threshold for ‘call in’ from six or more objections/submissions to ten or more objections/submissions; and
• applications that are ‘deemed to comply’ with the relevant clause(s) and there are no overlays or other permit triggers application, cannot be referred to Planning Committee.

What is deemed to comply?

On 6 March 2025 Ministerial Planning Scheme Amendment VC267 came into effect in all Victorian Planning Schemes. This amendment replaced the former Clause 55 (ResCode) provisions with the new Townhouse and Low-Rise Code (for assessing 2 or more dwellings of three storeys or less).

This amendment introduced new rules called “deemed to comply” standards for applicable applications. Currently, the ‘deemed to comply’ standards apply to planning applications that are assessed under:

•     Clause 54 (One dwelling on a lot or a small second dwelling on a lot)
•     Clause 55 (Two or more dwellings on a lot and Residential buildings)

We understand that the Minister for Planning is looking at extending this to other clauses.

This means, if the standard is met, then the objective is automatically met. Where all the required standards are met, and there are no other permit triggers to consider (for example an overlay), council must issue a planning permit (even if objections have been received).