Rules and How They're Checked

Overview

The Check measures your design against the rules that apply to each site: the zone and its council schedule, the Building Regulations, Clauses 55, 57 and 58, overlays such as the Design and Development Overlay, car parking (Clause 52.06) and the uses the zone allows. Each rule is declared once, with its clause, what it needs from the design, and whether it can be varied. Rules that have a shape are drawn in 3D.

Which Residential Clause Applies

The zone decides which clause a residential development is assessed against. Storeys don't count a basement.

* The Township Zone sends 4–6 storeys to Clause 57 within the urban growth boundary in metropolitan Melbourne.

What the Check measures from the massing, the neighbours and what you've drawn:

• Clause 57:
  • E2-1 street setback (4.5 m, 3 m to a side street);
  • E2-2 side and rear setbacks (4.5 m, or 6 m to the south, 12 m above 13.5 m);
  • E2-3 walls on boundaries, E2-4 site coverage (70%), E2-5 access, E2-6 tree canopy, E2-7 front fences;
  • E3-5 communal space and its sun;
  • E3-12 building separation (9 m);
  • E4-1 overshadowing and E4-2 overlooking (6 m). Both are deemed met when E2-2 and E2-3 are.
• Clause 58:
  • D7 communal open space by the number of dwellings;
  • D8 two hours of sun to it on 21 June;
  • D10 canopy cover and deep soil (Table D2).
• Inside the building (Clause 57 E3-4 to E3-11, Clause 58 D18 to D29): room sizes, room depth, windows, ventilation, storage and private open space, measured dwelling by dwelling from an uploaded IFC model's rooms or the units generated for apartment and mixed-use buildings. See Checking Inside the Building and Units in Drawn Buildings.
• Not measured: urban context, safety, noise, wind and detailed design are for the application's design response.

Mandatory or Discretionary

A rule that isn't met is labelled one of two ways:

Each finding links to the clause's text (Read the clause).

Rules in 3D

In the Check's On the map box, switch on Rules in 3D. The map tilts and draws each rule's legal space:

• Side and rear setbacks: the space a building may fill on its lot. It steps in as it rises, by the setback a wall that tall needs, in 1 m slices. Standard B2-3 and r.79 call for 1 m, plus 0.3 m for every metre over 3.6 m up to 6.9 m, then 1 m for every metre over that.
• Height: a plane at the zone's or schedule's height limit.
• Overlooking: the 9 m zone from each upper floor over the neighbours' land, from the floor up to the 1.7 m screen height (Standard B4-4).

Colours:

• a mandatory rule's space has a red edge, and a discretionary one amber;
• the part of a building that passes through a space is solid red.

By default only the rules a building passes through are drawn. Tick Every rule's space to see them all, or untick a family (Zoning and dimensions, Light and shadow, Views and privacy) to hide it. On a finding, Show in 3D draws just that rule on its site and flies the map to it.

What a Rule Needs

Some rules need more than footprints. Overlooking needs to know which windows are habitable-room windows, and overshadowing needs the neighbours' open space. Where the design or the data doesn't say, the Check estimates and says so in the finding (for example "the neighbours' windows are estimated"). Imported IFC models carry their windows and rooms, and the checks inside the building read them.

In the City of Melbourne

For a site in the City of Melbourne, the Check uses the City's own data:

• Neighbours' heights: the City's 2023 building footprints, measured from its May 2023 survey. A building's height is its roof or ridge less its base (both AHD), without chimneys or antennas. These outlines and heights replace the Overture or Microsoft ones they match. Overshadowing and overlooking use them instead of assuming one storey. The finding Neighbours' heights says how many are measured.
• Council trees: the City's street and park trees, with species and trunk diameter. Each tree's protection zone is 12 × its trunk, at least 2 m and at most 15 m (AS 4970-2009 s3.2). About half the trees, mostly young ones, have no trunk measured: those get the 2 m minimum, drawn fainter on the map. The finding Council trees says how much of each zone the design takes. Up to 10% is a minor encroachment; above that, an arborist must show the tree stays viable (s3.3). It also flags a drawn driveway that crosses a street tree's zone.
• In Build, Council trees lists the trees on the site and within 20 m. Keep adds a tree on the site as an existing tree with its trunk. Fill keeps new buildings out of its zone, and out of the zones of street trees that reach into the site. Removing a council tree needs the City's consent.

On the map, after a Check, the buildings with measured heights are outlined and labelled in metres, and the council trees are shown with their zones.

Sources