Ararat planning zones
Zones mapped in Ararat
C1Z — Commercial 1 Zone
18 mapped areasThe main shopping-strip and centre zone: retail, offices, food and entertainment, with housing above shops encouraged.
No default height limit — scale comes from overlay schedules (commonly a DDO) and abutting-residential interface setbacks (Clause 34.01-4 amenity provisions).
Read the published ordinance for C1Z →C2Z — Commercial 2 Zone
3 mapped areasA commercial zone for offices, trade supplies, bulky-goods retail and light manufacturing — typically along main roads rather than in shopping strips.
No default height limit; interface setbacks and amenity conditions apply near residential zones.
Read the published ordinance for C2Z →FZ — Farming Zone
39 mapped areasVictoria’s primary agricultural zone. Farming comes first; houses are allowed only where they support agriculture, and small-lot dwellings need a permit.
Minimum subdivision area per the schedule (default 40 ha); dwellings must not compromise agricultural use; excisions of existing houses are tightly controlled.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for FZ; use the council’s scheme above.
GRZ1 — General Residential Zone
16 mapped areasThe standard suburban residential zone. It supports a mix of housing — single dwellings, dual occupancies, townhouses and modest apartment buildings — in areas served by transport and services.
Default maximum building height 11 m / 3 storeys; a mandatory minimum garden-area requirement applies on lots over 400 m² (25–35% by lot size); ResCode (Clauses 54/55) governs setbacks, site coverage and amenity.
Read the published ordinance for GRZ1 →IN1Z — Industrial 1 Zone
8 mapped areasThe general manufacturing and warehousing zone. Industry is the intended use and residential amenity is not protected here.
No height limit by default; threshold (buffer) distances to sensitive uses under Clause 53.10 govern what industry can establish where.
Read the published ordinance for IN1Z →IN3Z — Industrial 3 Zone
3 mapped areasThe light-industrial buffer zone between industry and housing: service industry, warehousing and depots with lower off-site impacts.
No default height limit; amenity conditions and interface setbacks apply near residential zones.
Read the published ordinance for IN3Z →LDRZ — Low Density Residential Zone
1 mapped areaA large-lot residential zone on the urban fringe for houses on big blocks, often without full reticulated services.
Minimum subdivision area 0.4 ha unsewered (0.2 ha where reticulated sewerage is connected, subject to the schedule); dwellings otherwise controlled by the building regulations rather than ResCode density rules.
Read the published ordinance for LDRZ →MUZ — Mixed Use Zone
3 mapped areasA flexible zone that mixes housing with compatible shops, offices and other business uses, usually along main roads and in urban-renewal areas.
No default height limit — heights come from the schedule or from overlays (commonly a DDO); ResCode applies to residential development unless varied.
Read the published ordinance for MUZ →NRZ1 — Neighbourhood Residential Zone
1 mapped areaThe most restrictive residential zone, applied where existing neighbourhood character is to be preserved. New development is expected to respect the prevailing single-dwelling scale.
Mandatory maximum building height 9 m / 2 storeys; minimum garden-area requirement (25–35% by lot size); ResCode with typically tighter schedule variations on setbacks and site coverage.
Read the published ordinance for NRZ1 →PCRZ — Public Conservation and Resource Zone
53 mapped areasPublic conservation land — national and state parks, forests, coastal and waterway reserves — managed by a public land manager for environmental protection.
Development requires public land manager consent and is limited to the conservation/resource purpose; private development effectively requires rezoning first.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for PCRZ; use the council’s scheme above.
PPRZ — Public Park and Recreation Zone
49 mapped areasPublic open space — parks, gardens, sports grounds and foreshore reserves, generally in public ownership.
Development limited to what serves the open-space purpose; usually requires public land manager consent.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for PPRZ; use the council’s scheme above.
PUZ1 — Public Use Zone
19 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ1 →PUZ2 — Public Use Zone
12 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ2 →PUZ3 — Public Use Zone
8 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ3 →PUZ5 — Public Use Zone
6 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ5 →PUZ6 — Public Use Zone
14 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ6 →PUZ7 — Public Use Zone
7 mapped areasLand held for a public purpose — schools, hospitals, utilities, government facilities — with a suffix number identifying the purpose (e.g. PUZ2 education).
Development for the public purpose is largely exempt from permit requirements; anything else needs rezoning.
Read the published ordinance for PUZ7 →RAZ — Rural Activity Zone
2 mapped areasA flexible rural zone where farming coexists with tourism, function centres and other rural businesses that would struggle to get approval in the Farming Zone.
Schedule sets minimum subdivision area and dwelling lot thresholds; siting must protect agricultural land and landscape values.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for RAZ; use the council’s scheme above.
RCZ1 — Rural Conservation Zone
2 mapped areasA rural zone where environmental values (habitat, waterways, landscape) take priority over production. Development is possible but must demonstrably protect those values.
Permit tests focus on vegetation, waterway and habitat protection; building envelopes and vegetation retention are typical conditions.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for RCZ1; use the council’s scheme above.
RLZ — Rural Living Zone
20 mapped areasThe rural-lifestyle zone: houses on large country blocks (commonly 2–8 ha) where residential living is the accepted primary use, alongside hobby-scale farming.
Minimum lot size per the schedule (default 2 ha); on-site effluent and access standards shape building; bushfire controls frequently overlap.
Read the published ordinance for RLZ →SUZ1 — Special Use Zone
1 mapped areaA purpose-built zone for a specific non-standard use — racecourses, quarries, institutions, major venues — with the rules written in the schedule.
Entirely schedule-driven: each SUZ schedule defines its own permit triggers and built-form rules.
Read the published ordinance for SUZ1 →SUZ2 — Special Use Zone
1 mapped areaA purpose-built zone for a specific non-standard use — racecourses, quarries, institutions, major venues — with the rules written in the schedule.
Entirely schedule-driven: each SUZ schedule defines its own permit triggers and built-form rules.
Read the published ordinance for SUZ2 →SUZ3 — Special Use Zone
1 mapped areaA purpose-built zone for a specific non-standard use — racecourses, quarries, institutions, major venues — with the rules written in the schedule.
Entirely schedule-driven: each SUZ schedule defines its own permit triggers and built-form rules.
Read the published ordinance for SUZ3 →TRZ1 — Transport Zone
14 mapped areasLand reserved for transport infrastructure — TRZ1 state roads/freeways, TRZ2 principal road network, TRZ3 railways, TRZ4 airports and ports-related transport — managed by the relevant transport authority.
Development generally needs the transport authority’s consent; private use of the land effectively requires rezoning.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for TRZ1; use the council’s scheme above.
TRZ2 — Transport Zone
3 mapped areasLand reserved for transport infrastructure — TRZ1 state roads/freeways, TRZ2 principal road network, TRZ3 railways, TRZ4 airports and ports-related transport — managed by the relevant transport authority.
Development generally needs the transport authority’s consent; private use of the land effectively requires rezoning.
We hold no direct link to the published ordinance for TRZ2; use the council’s scheme above.
TZ — Township Zone
25 mapped areasThe general-purpose zone for small country towns, allowing housing plus the small-scale shops and services a township needs.
No mandatory height limit by default (schedules can add one); ResCode applies to housing; reticulated services may be limited — effluent disposal can constrain development.
Read the published ordinance for TZ →
This is the full set of zone codes in our VIC corpus for Ararat. A zone that exists in the council’s scheme but is not mapped in the data we hold will not appear here.
This page reports what is mapped in published VIC planning data, as we last synced it on 23 May 2026. It is general information, not planning advice, and it makes no assessment of any proposal. Whether an approval is needed, and what a council decides, are matters for the responsible authority — check the council’s own planning scheme and contact them directly.