Court Decides on Latest Amendment for 20-Year-Old Preston Scheme

Since then, amendments for the site have been approved “from time to time,” according to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, but the project site has remained vacant and derelict. 

The last amendment approved was in 2019 and allowed for an 11-storey building of 78 apartments and two commercial premises. 

That scheme comprised 4 three, 31 two and 30 one-bedroom apartments, and 13 studio units.

The most recent amendment sought, filed in 2025, proposed an increase of two and one-bedroom homes to take the total to 83 units. A 12th storey was sought to accommodate the five extra apartments.

While the City of Darebin did not determined that development application withun the timeframe, prompted the trip to VCAT, it opposed the amendment as it was missing “key information” to demonstrate policy compliance, the city said. 

It also argued that the height and scale of the amended building would overwhelm and reduced sunlight for a neighbouring property at 277 Raglan Street, and be “discordant” in the wider street. 

The additional level would be “too large and bulky” relative to the existing top level, and the height exceeded the requirements of the design and development overlay, the city said. 

▲ The Plenty Road site, subject to a development application and string of amendements for two decades, remains vacant and derelict.

In its ruling this month, VCAT senior member Alison Glynn said it was not clear that the plans aligned with the previously approved 11-storey building. 

The tribunal noted that the proposed additional “crown” level had a different architectural expression to the rest of the building, and was designed to be “distinctive” from the remainder of the built form. 

Glynn said that the development did not conform to the design and development overlay for The Junction, which extends from the Plenty Road junction with High Street to Bell Street, and which has a 12-storey maximum if design and quality objectives are met.

But the overall building height appeared to exceed the maximum 38m height controls, the tribunal said, and variation of that maximum had not been sought. 

The three of the five homes in the proposed additional level relied on “quite low” floor-to-ceiling heights to meet the 38m mandatory height requirement, the tribunal said, adding it was “by no means an ideal outcome” for internal amenity.

The court said that the way the additional level was designed did not achieve high-quality urban development. 

“On this issue alone we find the proposal fails,” Glynn said.

VCAT affirmed the City of Darebin’s refusal of the amendment, and rejected the additional storey.