Page 3453 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 September 2015
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“(1) the Government reaffirms its support for the principle of solar access in residential planning codes;
(2) the changes introduced under Variation 306 sought to significantly improve solar access and provide certainty to homeowners that opportunities for passive solar design and active solar technologies would be available to all residential blocks; and
(3) a process of review is underway to refine the solar access requirements whilst maintaining the important policy objective. This will include consultation with key industry bodies, including the Planning Institute, Property Council of the ACT, Institute of Landscape Architects, Housing Industry Association and Master Builders Australia.”.
Notwithstanding the broad community support I have talked about, within industry a range of differing, often conflicting views have been expressed about the way the policy should be delivered. The government has been listening, and the Environment and Planning Directorate has been working with industry and community representatives and considering adjustments to the provisions across the relevant parts of the territory plan. This process has included a workshop session with participants including builders, architects, planners, building certifiers and community council representatives where matters regarding the solar provisions were discussed.
At this workshop the participants agreed that the principle of protecting the solar access of a block was sound and robust and that any amendments to the provisions should be in keeping with this principle. A subgroup was formed from the workshop membership to further discuss and develop further improvements. This group, consisting of members representing the main workshop, acknowledged that while the solar provision are achievable on many blocks, the difficult blocks were the smaller ones, particularly compact blocks, and the steep ones.
It was also agreed that the solar provisions should not totally exclude overshadowing to the southern neighbour but, rather, allow a modest yet reasonable amount of overshadowing over the boundary. When the suggested amount of overshadowing was modelled, it was revealed that this was the same amount of overshadowing permitted within the solar envelope introduced with variation 306.
In response to industry comments and the outcomes of the workshop, EPD is currently finalising options for revised solar access provisions for consideration by government. More than one option has been developed for some of the proposed changes, with particular attention being given to small blocks and those in steeper areas. The updates being proposed will affect the building envelope rules in the single dwelling housing development code and the multiunit housing development code as well as parts of the Estate Development Code including the block compliance tables.
These options will be provided to the workshop group as well as industry and community representatives in the near future. This will include groups such as the Planning Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Property Council of Australia, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, the Housing
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