Planning Scheme Amendment
Drafting and delivering planning scheme amendments to implement strategic outcomes. We prepare clear, robust controls that translate policy into statutory planning provisions.
A planning scheme amendment is where strategic intent meets the statutory system. Poorly drafted provisions, inadequate strategic justification, submissions that catch Council off-guard, or panel processes that extend well beyond budget and timeline means that preparation matters. We prepare and manage amendments that are well-founded, carefully drafted and built to withstand scrutiny.
Our work spans the full amendment lifecycle: translating completed strategies, flood studies or heritage reviews into ordinance; managing authorisation and exhibition; handling submissions; and representing Council at Planning Panels Victoria and Standing Advisory Committees. We work across heritage, flooding and waterways, residential and activity centre policy, employment land, and neighbourhood character, for local councils, the Department of Transport and Planning, and catchment management authorities.
What We Do
Amendment work demands both strategic clarity and technical precision. We start by understanding what the amendment needs to achieve: the policy outcome, the strategic justification, and the implementation pathway. We then draft provisions that are consistent with Ministerial Directions and Planning Practice Notes and are designed to hold up under examination.
Our services cover the full process:
- preparing explanatory reports, instruction sheets, zone and
- overlay schedules, local policy, and Municipal Planning Strategy content
- coordinating authorisation requests and responding to Department of Transport and Planning information requests
- preparing and managing exhibition, including community information sessions, fact sheets and submission registers
analysing submissions and preparing Council responses
preparing Part A and Part B Planning Panel reports and supporting Council through hearings - reviewing panel recommendations and finalising amendment documentation for adoption.
We are experienced advocates and expert witnesses at Planning Panels Victoria and Standing Advisory Committees. We understand what panels look for in both the documentation and the hearing room.
Recent Projects
Why Plan2Place Consulting
Planning panels test the quality of both the documentation and the strategic thinking behind it. Provisions that are loosely drafted or poorly justified don’t survive that process intact. We draft with the panel process in mind from the start.
Our director Paul Buxton has prepared amendments for councils and state government throughout his career, including designing several of the zones and overlays that amendments now seek to apply. That background means we understand how provisions are constructed, how panels assess them, and what makes an amendment stick. Kellie Marks brings more than 20 years of experience across state and local government and consulting, including preparing amendments for activity centres, flood overlays, neighbourhood character and housing strategies. Our team has presented at Planning Panels Victoria and Standing Advisory Committees as both advocates and expert witnesses, including a five-day panel for Hepburn Shire Council’s comprehensive planning scheme review. Principal Strategic Planner Stuart Grigg brings nearly two decades of experience across local government, the Victorian Government, and consulting, including drafting state-wide planning scheme content and advocating before a Ministerial Advisory Committee on residential zone reforms.
Between them, the team has worked on amendments from both sides: as the people who built the framework and as the practitioners who work within it every day.