WHY HAVE LIBERALS GIVEN BROTHELS & ACCOMMODATION EQUAL BILLING AS PROHIBITED USES ON GWZ LAND?

Whilst I welcomemost of  the proposed new Planning Scheme amendment

ACCOMMODATION & BROTHELS are both regarded as Prohibited Uses on GREEN WEDGE ZONED Land which is still an illogical comparison for Accommodation use to be placed at the same level of prohibition and then with the State Liberals proposing to giving councils more flexibility on local issues makes no sense at all either when recently the Yarra Ranges Building Compliance dept sent an Order to a GWZ land owner claiming they could not house any fruit pickers, just the farmers family, otherwise they would have to change the home to a Class 1b building under BCA guidelines by getting another building permit and new occupancy permit for their already established home of 40 years.. A Class 1 a dwelling is a sole-occupancy-unit, whereas a Class 1b is a residential building of less than 300m sq floor area where no more than 12 unrelated would be resident and has more than 1 sole-occupancy-unit. They concluded that a bedroom is also classed as an attached bedroom room rented out to a separate tenant such as a fruit picker in a dwelling, is a sole-occupancy-unit [SOU is defined in the BCA].

I however would suggest that a seasonal fruit picker is not a resident and therefore the council claim is wrongly based, however this is an example of how quick the compliance officers are wanting to take issue and create legal battles without first giving consideration on how seasonal fruit pickers can be better housed without them having to sleep on tent stretchers after a hard days work bending over picking strawberries is something our planners and building compliance officers have never had to do in their lives. Changing building classes for seasonal fruit pickers is not an economical proposal for either farmers or investors who would want long termers to provide longer term income. The Yarra Ranges compliance team like to play like the role of Sheriff of Nottingham while the Economic and Agri-business departments are trying to negotiate longer term solutions, yet the only problem solver is going to be a Dept of Planning solution to over ride the Sheriff mentality. I do suggest farmers go direct to Matthew Guy to have the problem resolved this year instead of risking viability of our farms in the longer term.

This capricious interpretation of current laws & with then giving extra flexibility to Councils can only continue to have serious long term consequences for farmers when touring fruit pickers need to sleep in their cars or pitch tents on crown land because of the beauracratic interpretations of both building and Planning laws which puts Accommodation use in the same prohibited category as brothels