The rate: 0.25 per bedroom, rounded down, by mapped category
Clause 52.06-5 states that Table 1 "sets out the minimum and maximum car parking requirements that apply to a use specified in the table based on the land category identified in the Car Parking Requirement Maps (Department of Transport and Planning, 2025) (CPR maps)". The requirement is calculated by multiplying the number in the applicable category column by the measure — for a rooming house, the number of bedrooms. "If in calculating the number of car parking spaces the result is not a whole number, the required number of car parking spaces is to be rounded down to the nearest whole number."
| Land category (CPR maps) | Rate per bedroom | 9 bedrooms | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1 | minimum 0.25 | 2.25 | minimum 2 spaces, no maximum |
| Category 2 | minimum 0.25 | 2.25 | minimum 2 spaces, no maximum |
| Category 3 | minimum 0, maximum 0.15 | 1.35 | no minimum; maximum 1 space |
| Category 4 | maximum 0.1 | 0.9 | maximum 0 spaces (a permit under 52.06-3 is needed to provide more) |
The categories are mapped, not argued: VicPlan carries the Car Parking Requirement Maps layer, and "if the land is shown in two or more categories on the CPR maps, the car parking requirements for the higher category applies to all of the land". The capped categories (3 and 4) sit in the inner city around frequent public transport. In the outer ring where domestic-scale rooming houses are actually built, the land is almost entirely Category 1 or 2: of 982 registered rooming houses 20 km or more from the CBD that we checked against the mapped categories on 10 October 2026 (Consumer Affairs Victoria register, Vicmap geocoding), two were in Category 3.
Two further points from the same clause. The requirement in Table 1 "includes disabled car parking spaces", allocated in accordance with AS 2890.6-2009 and the Building Code of Australia — for a Class 1b building the National Construction Code rounds the proportion up, which is why a two-space rooming house normally shows one accessible space on the plan. And a schedule to a Parking Overlay can replace the Table 1 rate for the same use in the same category, so the overlay layer is read with the category layer.
VicPlan — Victorian planning maps (Car Parking Requirement Maps layer)
Clause 52.06-3 and 52.06-4: when a permit is needed, and who gets to object
Clause 52.06-3 (VC277, 18 December 2025) requires a permit to "reduce (including reduce to zero) the minimum number of car parking spaces required under clause 52.06-5 or in a schedule to the Parking Overlay", to provide required spaces on another site, or to "provide more than the maximum parking requirement". For a Category 1 or 2 rooming house there is no maximum, so providing six spaces where two are required needs no parking permit; providing one would. The clause also lists cases where no permit is needed — chiefly a new use whose requirement is no higher than the existing use's — and states that "an application under this clause to reduce the required number of car parking spaces by no more than 10 car parking spaces is a class of VicSmart application".
Clause 52.06-4 (VC311, 9 June 2026) then provides that an application under 52.06-3 "is exempt from the notice requirements of section 52(1)(a), (b) and (d), the decision requirements of section 64(1), (2) and (3) and the review rights of section 82(1) of the Act" where the application is only for that permit, or where every other permission sought is likewise exempt. In plain terms: a stand-alone parking reduction is decided without notifying neighbours and without a third-party appeal to VCAT.
Where the exemption and the parking clause meet
Clause 52.23 removes the zone permit for the use and, in six zones, for the buildings and works. It does not remove Clause 52.06. A compliant 52.23 rooming house still provides the Table 1 minimum, still prepares a car parking plan under 52.06-8, and still meets the 52.06-9 design standards unless the responsible authority agrees otherwise. The 2026 Greater Dandenong matter in the next section is the case where that distinction decided the outcome.
Clause 52.06-9 design standards: 3 m accessway, forward exit at four spaces, bay dimensions
Clause 52.06-8 requires a car parking plan "wherever clause 52.06 applies, whether or not a permit application is being made", showing all spaces, access lanes, driveways and associated works. Clause 52.06-9 then sets the design standards those plans must meet "unless the responsible authority agrees otherwise". Design standards 1, 3, 6 and 7 do not apply to one dwelling on a lot — a rooming house is not one dwelling, so all of them apply.
- Design standard 1 — accessways must "be at least 3 metres wide"; "if the accessway serves four or more car spaces or connects to a road in a Transport Zone 2 or Transport Zone 3, the accessway must be designed so that cars can exit the site in a forward direction"; and "if an accessway to four or more car parking spaces is from land in a Transport Zone 2 or Transport Zone 3, the access to the car spaces must be at least 6 metres from the road carriageway". A corner splay or clear area at least 50 per cent free of visual obstructions is required at the frontage for pedestrian sight lines.
- Design standard 2 — Table 2 minimum dimensions for 90° spaces: 2.6 m wide × 4.9 m long with a 6.4 m accessway; or 2.8 m × 4.9 m with 5.8 m; 3.0 m × 4.9 m with 5.2 m; 3.2 m × 4.9 m with 4.8 m. Parallel spaces are 2.3 × 6.7 m with a 3.6 m accessway. A wall, fence or column abutting a space must stay out of the clearance area shown on Diagram 1.
- Accessible spaces must achieve AS 2890.6-2009 rather than the Table 2 dimensions (note to Table 2).
What those standards do to a typical block is arithmetic, and it is the arithmetic we run before a client offers. On a 15–16 m frontage, six 90° bays with the forward-exit turning area that four-plus spaces require need roughly 12 m of depth between the street boundary and the building in our layouts; most blocks in the 500–650 m² range yield two to five spaces once a 9 m front setback, a 3 m accessway and the clearance to side fences are drawn. Three or fewer spaces can reverse to the street on a local road; the moment the fourth is drawn, a turning area is drawn with it.
Garden area: what the condition excludes before and after 28 October 2026
Clause 52.23-3 (VC257, 25 February 2025) removes the buildings-and-works permit for a rooming house in six zones only "if all of the following requirements are met", and one of them is: "If the development is in the General Residential Zone or Neighbourhood Residential Zone, a garden area is provided in accordance with the minimum garden area requirement specified in the zone." Clauses 32.08-4 and 32.09-4 (VC253, 14 December 2023) set that requirement as 25 per cent of a lot of 400–500 m², 30 per cent of a lot above 500 and up to 650 m², and 35 per cent of a lot above 650 m².
“Garden area — Any area on a lot that does not include: a) a dwelling, small second dwelling or residential building, except for: an eave, fascia or gutter that does not exceed a total width of 600mm; a pergola; an unroofed terrace, patio, deck, step or landing less than 800mm in height; a basement that does not project above ground level; an outbuilding that does not exceed a gross floor area of 10 square metres; and a domestic service normal to a dwelling, small second dwelling or residential building; b) a covered driveway; or c) a covered area set aside for car parking. An eave, fascia or gutter that does not exceed a total width of 600mm may encroach into an uncovered driveway or uncovered area set aside for car parking.” — Clause 73.01 General terms, as served on 3 November 2026 (definition amended by VC314, 28 October 2026; clause republished by VC322, 2 November 2026)
| Lot size | Minimum percentage of the lot set aside as garden area |
|---|---|
| 400–500 m² | 25 % |
| Above 500 m² to 650 m² | 30 % |
| Above 650 m² | 35 % |
Before Amendment VC314 took effect on 28 October 2026 the definition read “any area on a lot with a minimum dimension of 1 metre that does not include … b) a driveway; or c) an area set aside for car parking” (Planning Practice Note 84, May 2018 edition, quoting the clause), and the Department’s practice note spelled out that “any uncovered or covered car parking including a garage and carport” sat outside the garden area. On that wording every bay you added was garden area you removed: in our own layouts for a single-storey nine-room building of about 292 m² on lots of 550–650 m², six bays fully paved with their accessway typically left 25–27 per cent of the lot as garden area against the 30 per cent required, while the two mandatory bays left 45–50 per cent.
Amendment VC314 changed the definition on 28 October 2026
The Victoria Planning Provisions amendment history records VC314 as gazetted and in operation on 28 October 2026 to “update the definition of garden area at clause 73.01”. The clause as now served drops the 1 m minimum dimension and excludes only a covered driveway and a covered area set aside for car parking; an eave of up to 600 mm may overhang an uncovered driveway or bay. On the current wording the same six uncovered bays leave the garden-area percentage where the building footprint put it. What removes garden area now is a carport or garage over the bays, or a roofed driveway.
The rule we apply from 3 November 2026 is therefore to test garden area with the building footprint plus any covered parking or covered driveway, to treat uncovered bays as neutral, and to write the definition date on the plan — a council checklist that has not caught up may still ask the pre-VC314 question, and a planner is entitled to read the clause as it stands on the day of the decision. A lot that cannot meet the percentage with the building and any covered parking alone does not qualify for the 52.23-3 exemption in the GRZ or NRZ.
The full Clause 52.23 rule set, licensing and minimum standards
Arterial frontage: Clause 52.29 and the council vehicle-crossing permit
Clause 52.29 (VC205, 20 January 2022) applies to "land adjacent to a road in the Transport Zone 2" and requires a permit to "create or alter access to a road in a Transport Zone 2". An application "must be referred under section 55 of the Act" to the referral authority in Clause 66.03 — in practice the Head, Transport for Victoria — and is exempt from notice and third-party review. Combined with Design standard 1 above, a rooming house fronting an arterial road needs forward exit for any accessway of four or more spaces, access at least 6 m from the carriageway, and the road authority's agreement to the crossover — frequently delivered as a left-in, left-out condition.
On every road, the physical crossover between the kerb and the boundary is council infrastructure. Councils require a separate vehicle-crossing permit to build, remove, repair or change one — Merri-bek, for example, states that "if you are building, removing, repairing or changing a vehicle crossing, you will need a permit". A corner block or a rear lane is therefore an opportunity for a second access, not an entitlement to one; in our site scoring it earns points as a geographic fact and is labelled "identified from mapping, access conditions to be confirmed".
Our screening reads the frontage road from the Vicmap road network (road class, divided carriageway), the Transport Zone from Vicmap Planning, the Public Acquisition Overlay layer for planned road widening, and the Department of Transport and Planning traffic-volume series. A declared arterial on the frontage, a count of 20,000 or more vehicles a day, or a Public Acquisition Overlay at the frontage each reduce a site's rank; none of them is a prohibition.
Merri-bek City Council — vehicle crossing and other construction permits
What VCAT has said: shared facilities decide the exemption
Studio Homes Victoria Pty Ltd v Brimbank CC [2022] VCAT 1371 concerned nine studios in St Albans, each with an ensuite and a kitchenette about 2 m long with a sink, food-preparation area and fridge, alongside a shared kitchen, laundry and outdoor area. The applicant sought a declaration under s 149A of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 that no permit was required under Clause 52.23. The Tribunal refused it: on a "best fit" characterisation the real purpose was accommodation in nine self-contained studios with exclusive possession, residents could live entirely on private facilities, and the proposal was therefore not a rooming house for the purposes of the exemption even though it met every numerical limit. The lesson for a layout is that an ensuite does not defeat the exemption; a per-room kitchenette can.
Read the decision, not our summary
The decision turns on its own plans. It is on AustLII; automated retrieval was refused on 3 November 2026, so the summary above relies on HWL Ebsworth’s published note and should be checked against the decision itself before it is relied on. Neither replaces advice on your own layout.
AustLII — Studio Homes Victoria Pty Ltd v Brimbank CC [2022] VCAT 1371
What we draw on the parcel before a client offers
- The nine-room single-storey footprint (12.39 × 23.94 m for the product we buy land for) set back 9 m from the street boundary and 1 m from every other boundary and easement — so the lot needs about 33.9 m of depth and 14.4 m of width before any bay is drawn.
- The two mandatory bays to Table 2 dimensions, one of them accessible, with a 3 m accessway; then as many further bays as the frontage holds, with a turning area the moment the fourth is drawn, and the existing crossover kept where it is rather than a new one assumed.
- Garden area calculated with the building footprint plus any covered parking or covered driveway, per the Clause 73.01 definition in force since 28 October 2026 (VC314), with uncovered bays treated as neutral and the definition date written on the plan; a lot that fails 30 or 35 per cent on that basis fails the 52.23-3 condition in the GRZ or NRZ and is not recommended.
- The frontage road's class and Transport Zone, any Public Acquisition Overlay, and the traffic count — an arterial frontage is ranked lower, not excluded, and its Clause 52.29 permit is noted.
- Corner and lane frontages recorded from Vicmap as "identified from mapping, access conditions to be confirmed" — a second access is a question for the council's crossing permit, not a fact about the land.
How we screen development sites every day — the three tests and the 100-point ranking rubric