By JESSE GRAHAM
A SWEEPING change to the Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO) will bring a fairer system for landowners in the Yarra Ranges, with issues that locked land from development set to be resolved.
On Wednesday 28 May, Planning Minister Matthew Guy outlined a number of changes to the BMO, which he had adopted after a long period of consultation.
Key changes include allowing bushfire bunkers to be constructed to mitigate bushfire risk and fixing vegetation clearance obligations to achieve defendable space around homes.
Healesville resident Danny Zemp, who owns property covered by the BMO in Chum Creek, said he welcomed the change, which could see him finally able to build on his land.
Due to BMO vegetation removal requirements clashing with an Environmental Significance Overlay, he would have been met with refusal if he applied for a planning permit.
Mr Zemp said items such as a fire bunker would add to the costs associated with building a home, but would also add a sense of security in the event of a bushfire.
“I welcome the changes and (would) like to go on with getting serious about planning and, hopefully soon, building,” he said.
“I appreciate the common sense approach to this issue.”
The vegetation clearance obligations under the BMO will be restricted to the property’s boundary – before the changes, it had not been restricted, meaning the required clearing could be impossible for some.
A clarification will also be added to the BMO, which outlines that existing homes can be rebuilt without having to meet the overlay’s conditions, as a new home would.
CFA veto power over BMO-affected planning permits will be abolished under the changes.
Yarra Ranges Council will also be able to streamline applications, with a $700,000 assistance fund to be created to assist landowners and councils to develop local bushfire planning rules.
Yarra Ranges mayor Fiona McAllister said the changes acknowledged people’s rights to live in bushy areas, such as those around Chum Creek and Warburton, while still mitigating bushfire risk.
“It looks, at this point, as if it will resolve all the issues for those building in BMO areas,” she said.
“The community has expressed tremendous concerns around the BMO and financial hardship, extreme stress and great uncertainty, as has been the experience of many.
“For all of the people who have been fighting for years to achieve this, it is an incredible outcome.”
The council had long advocated for a change to the BMO, after being unable to issue planning permits to landowners affected by the overlay.
Seymour MP and Eildon candidate, Cindy McLeish, said the changes would assist “landowners affected by a complex system.”
“It was clear that a common-sense solution, and one that gave a fair go to landowners needed to be found, and it is pleasing that the minister has delivered exactly that.”
The BMO was developed as a result of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and introduced in 2011.
It currently applies to land that may be significantly affected by a bushfire, and large swathes of the Yarra Ranges are covered by the overlay.
The overlay requires new developments to have appropriate bushfire protection measures, but its rigid rules had left many areas of the Yarra Ranges unable to be built on.
The changes to the BMO do not require a change in legislation, and are expected to be gazetted state-wide in early July.
Ms McLeish said information for landowners and councils on the changes would be available shortly at dpcd.vic.gov.au/planning.
