VCAT Fast Track List for post-permit applications

From 1 July 2022, VCAT will establish a Fast Track List to expedite a number of post-permit applications.

These changes are designed to improve the efficiency of VCAT’s procedures and to provide certainty to applicants and developers – particularly after a permit has been secured for a development site.

The following applications under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) will automatically fall within the Fast Track List:

• Cancellation or amendment of a permit by a non-permit holder
• Refusal or failure by Council to extend time for a permit
• Declarations
• Review of a refusal by Council to extend time by which information must be given in a planning permit application
• Applications regarding certificates of compliance
• Applications to amend or end a section 173 agreement
• Review of a decision of a specified body that something must be done to their satisfaction

Hearings in the Fast Track List will be listed approximately nine to 12 weeks from lodgement and a decision is likely to be received within two weeks for less complex matters and six weeks for more complicated matters.

If you seek to amend a planning application or the plans attaching to an approved permit, your application cannot be heard in the Fast Track List.

The Fast Track List will not hear applications for review regarding a decision by Council to refuse a permit, a failure by Council to grant a permit, a review of Council’s requirements to give notice or request further information or in relation to the conditions of a permit granted by Council. These cases will continue to be heard in either the standard Planning and Environment List or the Major Cases List.

If you would like specific advice about whether your matter is eligible for the new VCAT Fast Track List, please do not hesitate to contact Andrea Towson, Maria Anenoglou or Sophia Michailides of the Gadens Planning and Environment Team.

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Authored by:

Andrea Towson, Partner
Maria Anenoglou, Senior Associate
Sophia Michailides, Associate