The City of Casey has commenced a project to explore avenues to reduce planning regulation for activities through a limited-term pilot.

The project is backed by the Victorian Government’s Regulatory Reform Incentive Fund and aims to encourage business investment and growth in the area. The reform will deliver Victorians wide-ranging benefits by reducing regulatory burden, including streamlined applications and approvals, improved access to information and faster operational licensing registration and renewals.

Council will pilot planning reforms to explore avenues to reduce regulation and provide limited risk of impact upon other planning objectives. While overall improvements are fundamental to the initiative, the project is interested in three key focus areas which have been identified as opportunities for reform:

• Increasing non-retail uses in activity centres
• Expanding the scope of home-based business activities that can be undertaken prior to triggering planning impediments
• Reviewing and eliminating duplication in approvals between Council and other approval agencies.

The benefits for City of Casey businesses will be:

• Faster to establish a business
• Reduce duplication and generate savings on applications
• Review of parking requirements for activity centres
• Reduce the need for ‘change of use’ permits
• Relax some guidelines on small businesses when working from home
• Support small businesses wishing to establish or change their operations

We want to hear from businesses, big and small to further understand any challenges and barriers that may exist with planning processes and approvals in Casey. We’re keen to hear about your experiences, both positive and negative, regarding establishing your business, running your business, and/or growing or expanding your business.

We’re also looking to contact businesses to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and barriers businesses are experiencing. You can choose to participate by selecting the relevant survey response and providing your contact details.

Please complete the survey below by Wednesday 11 May 2022.