Plans have been refused for a house on farmland in Bolinda and comes with a warning for prospective property buyers.
Applicants sought to build a house on 5.7 hectares at Weatherly Road to support an existing hay cropping business.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s earlier rejection of the plans.
MRSC’s refusal was on nine grounds including the plans not protecting agricultural land, fragmentation of agricultural land with little justification, and it being inappropriate for the area.
VCAT senior member J A Bennett was not persuaded the proposal was acceptable given the many policies discouraging additional dwellings on small rural lots.
“I do not accept that the dwelling is required to provide day-to-day management of what is a benign agricultural use of the land. It might be convenient to live on the property, but it is not essential for the ongoing production of hay,” Bennett said.
“My concern is that if a dwelling is constructed, the property will primarily become a rural lifestyle property.
“Allowing even a small dwelling on this land will change its character by intensifying the residential use on what is now a largely vacant agricultural lot. It will change the land use balance to one more akin to a rural living property – an outcome the planning scheme is seeking to avoid.
“Approving a small dwelling on this lot potentially paves the way for future extensions and intensification of the residential use once that use has been established on the land. If that were to occur, it would further shift the land use balance towards a rural living property.”
The property in question was once part of larger holding before it and surrounding lots were either subdivided or sold off into separate ownership.
The applicant had purchased the property without a building permit but it had history of a lapsed permit for a house.
Bennett used the case as an opportunity to warn prospective property buyers to understand they may not be able to build in some areas.
“As explained at the hearing, for at least four decades the advice to purchasers wanting to live on vacant rural land is don’t buy without a valid planning permit for a dwelling or a contract of sale that is conditional on obtaining a planning permit for a dwelling,” Bennett said.
“It is my experience that without such guarantees there is a high probability that a planning permit for a dwelling will not be granted on small rural lots across Victoria.
“As I have noted in previous decisions, I can recall that in the 1970s the state government published a booklet which strongly advised prospective landowners not to buy small rural lots unless and until a planning permit for a dwelling had been obtained. That advice is equally relevant today.”
