Site plans for Port Phillip, Victoria: drawn in minutes
Need a site plan for a shed, patio, carport, deck, pool or granny flat in Port Phillip? Site plans and assessments in minutes, drawn over the real lot.
Building in Port Phillip
Height is the local story in Port Phillip. Schedules along the Albert Park and Middle Park foreshore, the Esplanade, St Kilda's Carlisle Street, Barkly Street and Alma Road, Port Melbourne's growth area, South Melbourne Central and O'Donnell Gardens each set their own height limits. Fine grain inner urban areas, Beacon Cove and garden suburban areas keep lower limits.
Most of those schedules vary nothing else, so setbacks, site cover and open space follow the state, and the minimum garden area requirement stays on in the general schedules. A heritage overlay can bring even small work into a planning permit, and the Port Phillip application search lists lodged work.
What we hold for Port Phillip
For Port Phillip we hold the council’s own rules for:
- sheds, garden sheds, garages and carports
- patios, pergolas, louvred roofs, decks and shade sails
- pools, fences and retaining walls
- granny flats
- driveways, water tanks and shipping containers
At each lot we check the state’s mapping for flood, bushfire, landslide, heritage and native vegetation. We also read the council’s application register for past applications on the lot.
Last checked
How approval works in Victoria
In Victoria a building permit comes from a registered building surveyor, either the council's municipal building surveyor or a private one. A small structure can be exempt from a building permit, but it still has to meet the siting rules. Where a structure cannot meet a siting rule, the building surveyor asks the council for its report and consent before issuing the permit. A planning permit from the council is a separate application, needed where the zone or an overlay on the block calls for one. The building surveyor reads the site plan for the structure's distance to each boundary, its height near the boundary and what else stands on the lot. The siting rules decide most small structures, as per the Building Regulations 2018 and, where a planning permit is needed, the single home code.
Drawing the plan
Type the property address, the lot’s real boundaries load from official land records in Victoria, and you place the structure over the aerial view. The plan prints to scale with boundary lengths, setback distances, a north arrow, a legend, a site coverage table and a title block, as the site plan for a building permit or a planning permit.
What a certifier in Port Phillip will ask you
How deep is the pool?
The depth decides whether the water needs a barrier, and the barrier has to be in place before the pool is filled. The barrier is what gets inspected, so the sheet shows where it runs and every gate with its swing.
Is the patio a pergola, a louvred roof or a solid roof?
An open pergola and a roofed patio are treated differently near the boundary, and louvres that shut to shed water count as a roof. Roofed, it also adds to the site cover total on the sheet.
Is the lot in an overlay, and what is the zoning?
A flood, bushfire, heritage or character overlay can bring a planning approval on top of the building approval, and the zone decides which of the council’s rules apply. The mapped overlays are read at the lot as the structure goes on the plan.
Is the carport open, or closed in?
How open the carport is changes whether it needs a fire rated wall near the boundary, and a roller door or a later enclosure reopens the question. A shed never takes the open carport exemption.
The figures for your own lot are read in a minute, from its address.
Every question a certifier asks is on the Victoria page.
Changes on the way
Rule changes announced for Port Phillip, for Victoria and for the whole country, the state and national lines in full on the Victoria page, each with the page that says so and the day we read it.
In the next 90 days
Nothing due in the next 90 days that we know of.
Later
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ABCB Housing Provisions 2025 (with NCC 2025)
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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AS 1926.1:2024 Swimming pool safety barriers
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 10.8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 9.2
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H6, Specification 42 and Housing Provisions Section 13
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Act 2026
Source planning.vic.gov.au, read
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Building Regulations 2018 (sunset and remake)
Source vic.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, residential pause
Source treasury.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, next edition
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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No date yet
AS 3959:2018 Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas
Source store.standards.org.au, read
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No date yet
AS 4678-2002 Earth retaining structures
Source store.standards.org.au, read
Date passed, next step not seen yet
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Building Amendment (Siting and Other Matters) Regulations 2026, S.R. 173/2026, and Building Amendment (Small Second Dwellings) Regulations 2026, S.R. 174/2026
Source content.legislation.vic.gov.au, read
What we changed for Port Phillip
The rules we hold for Port Phillip, each brought up to date from the page it names, newest first. The summary above reads from them.
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Council rules
Council notices
No story for Port Phillip yet.
The sources we read for Port Phillip
21 sources read for Port Phillip, the newest on , each below with the day it was last read.
Planning schemes and codes
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ1 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ10 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ11 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ12 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ13 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ14 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ2 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ3 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ4 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ5 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ6 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ7 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ8 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme GRZ9 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ1 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ2 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ3 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ4 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ5 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ6 schedule
Changed since the read before
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Port Phillip Planning Scheme NRZ7 schedule
Changed since the read before
Follow Port Phillip in a feed reader: www.rapidsiteplan.au/site-plan/port-phillip/feed.xml. Every council and state has one, listed on rule changes by council and state.
RapidSiteplan is design software: you confirm details, measure on site and your certifier or council makes the approval decision. The rule above is general information, not building or legal advice. Boundaries shown are indicative, a surveyor is recommended where exact positions matter.
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