Yarra City Council is poised to overhaul parts of its planning scheme in a bid to ease pressure on small businesses and clear a path for more rooftop solar, including on heritage buildings.
Yarra City Council Mayor, Stephen Jolly, said that Council will now seek state government authorisation for the Amendment (C334yara).
"This Amendment will streamline planning rules, reduce unnecessary permits and support the council's broader 'Cutting Red Tape – Supporting Local Businesses' program," he said.
The Amendment removes or winds back a series of planning permit triggers that currently apply to shopfronts, commercial buildings and business signage, particularly in areas covered by design and heritage controls. It will also test a new approach to exempting solar panels from planning permits in heritage overlays, under strict conditions.
"We will be writing to the Minister for Planning and the Department of Transport and Planning seeking broader state reforms to back the local changes and lighten burdens upon small business across the inner city," said Mayor Jolly.
The push follows a 2024 council resolution, after complaints from traders, to explore "opportunities and advocacy avenues to streamline and simplify processes for local business, and support and promote local businesses and live music".
Under the proposed amendment, Yarra would introduce new exemptions to allow certain changes to commercial building facades in Design and Development Overlays, provided they maintain active shopfronts at street level. Single-storey rear additions and outbuildings up to four metres high would also be exempt in relevant overlays.
Signage is another major target. The report recommends allowing small, low-impact business identification signs in heritage areas, subject to conditions. To support this, the schedule to the state signage clause would be amended so that simple business identification signs in commercial zones – including internally illuminated signs – are exempt from public notice and third-party review, again provided they are not high-impact digital or animated formats.
Making it easier to install solar
Yarra also introduced an amendment to reduce hurdles for installing solar power.
Heritage considerations loom large over the reforms and council is aligning exemptions for non-residential buildings with those that already apply to residential properties, including minor alterations, outbuildings and structures such as pergolas and verandahs.
Yarra currently relies on a state provision that exempt solar energy systems in heritage overlays only if they are not visible from the street. Recent state changes now allow councils to adopt explicit exemptions through their heritage schedules.
"To reflect the shift, Yarra's local heritage policy will be tweaked so that it focuses on minimising visual impact where panels cannot reasonably be hidden," said Mayor Jolly.
"This amendment recognises that solar panels are not permanent structures and can be installed and removed with limited impact on heritage fabric."
