About the Planning and Environment List
Contact details
Powers of the Planning and Environment List
Constitution of the Planning and Environment List
Applications
Hearings
Mediations
Useful links
Your privacy and VCAT
For further information, please select a topic from the menu bar options to the left of this page.
About the Planning and Environment List
The Planning and Environment List is part of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), an independent tribunal, which hears and decides applications by permit applicants, objectors and others in an informal and expeditious manner and upon their merits. It permits a broad range of people whose interests are affected by a decision to participate in a hearing.
The Planning and Environment List hears and determines:
- applications to review decisions made by Municipal Councils and other authorities under a number of Acts of Parliament; (See Legislation),
- applications for enforcement orders, applications to cancel or amend permits and applications for declarations relating to the use and/or development of land under the Planning and Environment Act 1987.
Powers of the Planning and Environment List
In applications to review the decision of an authority, the Planning and Environment List has the power to affirm, vary or set aside any decision being reviewed or to substitute its own decision.
Constitution of the Planning and Environment List
The members of VCAT (including the Planning and Environment List) are persons appointed by the Governor in Council. The President of VCAT is a Supreme Court Judge. Two County Court judges are Vice Presidents. The other members of the Planning and Environment List include experienced town planners, lawyers and other persons with special professional expertise, such as architects, scientists and engineers. The members include both full time and sessional members. One or more members sitting together hear applications depending on the nature of the application. For more details see
Organisation Structure.
Full-time members of the Planning and Environment List are:
| Deputy President in charge of the Planning and Environment List: | Helen Gibson - Lawyer |
 | |
| Senior Members: | Baird, Margaret - Town Planner |
| Byard, Russell - Lawyer |
| Rickards, Jeanette - Lawyer |
| |
| Full Time Members: | Bennett, John - Town Planner |
| Cimino, Sam - Town Planner |
| Hewet, Laurie - Town Planner |
| Martin, Philip - Lawyer & Town Planner |
| Naylor, Rachel - Town Planner |
| O'Leary, Peter - Town Planner |
| Potts, Ian - Environmental Scientist |
| Rickards, Jeanette - Lawyer |
| Sibonis, Bill - Town Planner |
| |
| Senior Sessional Members: | Komesaroff, Tonia - Lawyer |
| Liston, Anthony - Town Planner |
| Sharkey, Gerard - Engineer, Town Planner & Accountant |
| |
| Sessional Members: | Alsop, David - Architect |
| Bilston-McGillen, Tracey - Town Planner |
| Carew, Megan - Town Planner |
| Chase, Gregory - Town Planner |
| Chuck, Alan - Engineer |
| Cook, Dalia - Lawyer |
| David, Graeme - Environmental Science |
| Davies, Vicki - Town Planner |
| Evans, Robert - Town Planner |
| Fong, Christina - Town Planner |
| Gray, Peter - Architect |
| Glynn, Alison - Town Planner |
| Hadjigeorgiou, Nicholas - Town Planner & Engineer |
| Harty, Christopher - Town Planner & Environmental Science |
| Homewood, Jane - Architect, Planner and urban designer |
| Keaney, John - Town Planner |
| Keddie, Ann - Architect |
| Mainwaring, Sylvia - Industrial Chemist |
| McNamara, Kenneth - Town Planner & Engineer |
| Osborn, Jane - Town Planner |
| Pizzey, Geoffrey - Heritage & Tourism |
| Quirk, Anthony - Engineer |
| Rae, David - Town Planner |
| Read, Michael - Town Planner & Architect |
| Rundell, Geoff - Town Planner |
| Sharpley, Greg - Engineer |
| Taranto, Mary-Anne - Town Planner |
| Wilson, Cynthea - Town Planner |
The President, other presidential members and members of other lists will from time to time sit in the Planning and Environment list.
The President or his delegate appoints the tribunal to hear a particular application. The characteristics of the application are considered in deciding the expertise and the number of members to constitute the tribunal for the particular case. The
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, enabling legislation, and other statutes contain particular rules governing the constitution of the tribunal in certain application types, for example:
- section 64 of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998;
- clause 52 of Schedule 1 of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998;
- sections 149A and 149B of the Planning and Environment Act 1987.
Contact details
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
Planning and Environment List
55 King Street
Melbourne, Victoria 3000
(Inquiries at Ground floor)
Telephone: 9628 9777
Facsimile: 9628 9789
(Office Hours: 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.)