Colac Otway planning changes

Method. Delora's own method, not an official classification. Each zone family is ranked by how much housing it generally allows (rural 1, low-density 2, neighbourhood and township 3, general residential 4, residential growth and housing choice 5, mixed use and commercial 1 6, activity centre and precinct 7, urban growth 8). A change to a higher rank reads as allowing more housing, to a lower rank as allowing less. Moving land out of every ranked zone (for example into an industrial or public-use zone) counts as taken out of housing, and the reverse as opened to housing. Urban Growth land that receives its permanent zone once a precinct is built out is shown separately, not as a downzoning. A change of schedule within one zone (GRZ1 to GRZ2) can tighten or loosen the local rules, so it gets no verdict. Legacy recodes (R1Z to GRZ, RDZ to TRZ) and moves between road, rail and public-land zones are administrative and excluded from the counts.

How a change is dated. Where the service records a gazettal date for the new zone or overlay within two weeks of it taking effect, that gazettal date is shown. Otherwise the date the new record took effect is shown instead, and marked as such on the notice.

Amendment numbers. Matched to a notice when exactly one planning scheme amendment was gazetted for that council on that date; shown as ambiguous when several were, and never guessed. There is no amendment-number field in the source data itself.

• FZ/RAZ/RCZ/GWZ/GWAZ/RUZ/RLZ — Rural and green-wedge zones: at most one dwelling on a large lot, often needing a permit.
• LDRZ — Low Density Residential: houses on large lots (typically 0.4 ha or more) with limited subdivision.
• NRZ/TZ — Neighbourhood Residential and Township: detached housing with limited growth; the most restrictive urban residential zones.
• GRZ/R1Z/R2Z/R3Z — General Residential (and the pre-2014 Residential 1-3 codes it replaced): moderate growth such as townhouses and dual occupancies.
• RGZ/HCTZ — Residential Growth, and Housing Choice and Transport: zones designated for more housing, with apartments and greater height.
• MUZ/C1Z/B1Z/B2Z/B5Z/CDZ/PDZ/CCZ/DZ — Mixed use, Commercial 1 and the comprehensive or precinct zones: apartments above or beside other uses, usually in centres.
• ACZ/PRZ — Activity Centre and Precinct: the highest-density urban zones, applied to major centres and precincts planned for intensive change.
• UGZ/UFZ — Urban Growth: greenfield land being turned into whole new suburbs under a precinct structure plan.

Honest limits.

• Zone-polygon history runs from 30 Jul 2017 onwards; earlier changes are gazettal records only, without a mapped boundary.
• Overlay history covers heritage, floodway, land subject to inundation, special building and bushfire management only — not every overlay type in the planning scheme.
• This shows the zone or overlay that applies. It does not say what a planning permit will allow — that depends on the zone schedule, any overlay and the specific proposal.
• The up/down classification is Delora’s own method, not an official one.