Changing Nations: Land Use Zones

All of the land in Victoria is divided into areas called zones by local government – via maps in their planning schemes. The zones indicate whether a planning permit is required to construct a building or carry out works. These zones determine what land can and can’t be used for. They are one of the elements of a planning scheme that can determine whether or not a planning permit is required. Read through this website to learn more about zones in Victoria.

In urban planning as well as transportation planning, land use is the object of zonal characterization. Each land use zone is subject to a series of regulations depicting what can be built in terms of criteria such as nature, function, and density, giving municipal governments tools to influence urban development. There are four major types of land use zoning. Read through this website to learn about them.

Zoning is a planning control tool for regulating the built environment and creating functional real estate markets. It does so by dividing land that comprises the statutory area of a local authority into sections, permitting particular land uses on specific sites to shape the layout of towns and cities and enable various types of development. Zoning has a relatively short history as a tool for land-use planning. It determines the location, size, and use of buildings and decides the density of city blocks. Read through this website to learn more.

This interactive tool from VicPlan allows you to search for any Victorian address and see what land use zone it is in.

Zones are one of the elements of a planning scheme that can determine whether or not a planning permit is required and what land can and can’t be used for. This website gives links to examples of zone definitions in Melbourne.