Templestowe Council Changes Height, Setback Rules for Developers This Month

Templestowe's local planning scheme has been amended, effective July 1, 2026, with new controls tightening allowable building heights in established residential zones while simultaneously opening a narrow window for higher-density development within 400 metres of the Templestowe Village activity centre on Porter Street. The changes have been months in the making and land at a moment when planning applications across the municipality are running at their highest volume in four years.

The timing matters for a simple reason: the pipeline is full. Dozens of applications lodged before the July 1 commencement date are now being assessed under transitional provisions, while anything filed from this month forward must satisfy the updated ResCode overlay requirements that council adopted in March. Applicants and their architects have been scrambling to understand exactly where the boundary sits between the old controls and the new ones, and the answer is not always straightforward.

What the New Controls Actually Say

Under the amended scheme, the default maximum height in the General Residential Zone across much of Templestowe East drops from 11 metres to 9 metres, with an additional design quality test required for any proposal above two storeys. Side setbacks on lots narrower than 15 metres have also been tightened, a response to council's own analysis showing that boundary-to-boundary construction on Ruffey Creek-adjacent streets, including sections of Foote Street and Templestowe Road, had generated a disproportionate share of objections over the past three assessment cycles.

The higher-density precinct centred on the Porter Street village strips operates differently. There, a maximum of five storeys is now permissible, but only if a proposal satisfies a mandatory design excellence assessment run through council's Urban Design Advisory Panel, which meets on the second Thursday of each month. Ground-floor active frontages are mandatory within 80 metres of the Porter Street and Grafton Street intersection. Proposals that do not activate the street-level plane at that corner will be refused on design grounds alone, regardless of how the upper floors perform against the scheme's criteria.

Council's planning department confirmed the amendment was triggered in part by the volume of three-storey walk-up apartment proposals clustering around the Templestowe Village shopping precinct, where land values have risen sharply since 2023. Comparable sites on Templestowe Road that changed hands for around $1.2 million in early 2024 were trading at closer to $1.55 million by the first quarter of 2026, according to publicly available title transfer records. That price pressure created a strong financial incentive for developers to push height limits regardless of neighbourhood character concerns.

Practical Implications for Buyers, Owners and Developers

For existing homeowners in the Templestowe East pocket between Foote Street and the Ruffey Lake Park boundary, the 9-metre cap offers a degree of protection that the previous scheme did not clearly guarantee. Planning consultants working in the area have noted, without committing to a specific figure, that the new side-setback requirements effectively rule out several townhouse configurations that were viable under the old rules, particularly on rectangular lots of between 500 and 650 square metres.

Developers with sites already zoned for higher density near Porter Street face a different calculation. The five-storey allowance sounds generous, but the mandatory Urban Design Advisory Panel process adds at least six to eight weeks to the pre-application pathway, and panel feedback is not binding, yet refusal on design grounds is now explicitly available as a reason for council to decline a permit without referring the matter to VCAT on merits grounds. That is a significant procedural shift.

Residents wanting to understand how the changes affect their property can access council's updated planning scheme maps through the Templestowe Manningham Council planning portal, where the new overlays have been live since July 3. Pre-application meetings, which council planning staff strongly recommend before any multi-dwelling proposal is lodged, can be booked in slots opening on the first Monday of each month. The next available intake is August 4.

This article is general information only and is not personal financial or investment advice. Consider your own circumstances and seek licensed professional advice before making financial decisions.