VC286: what changed for venues on 1 July 2025

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In short

• On 1 July 2025, Amendment VC286 removed clause 52.27 from every Victorian planning scheme. Since then, a planning permit is no longer needed to sell or consume liquor.
• The use of a venue and any building works may still need a planning permit, depending on the zone.
• Many permits still carry old liquor conditions. Our position is that conditions that related solely to clause 52.27 no longer have effect. Conditions tied to a permission the scheme still requires continue to bind.
• VCAT decisions since VC286 point the same way, and a new section 69D of the Planning and Environment Act will add to that when it commences.
• This is our position as consultants. It isn't legal advice, and every permit needs to be read on its own terms.

What was clause 52.27?

Clause 52.27 was a provision in every Victorian planning scheme. In many cases, it required a planning permit to use land to sell or consume liquor. It was usually triggered when a venue applied for a new liquor licence or changed an existing one.

When council assessed a clause 52.27 application, it looked at the amenity effects of liquor: the hours, the number of patrons, and the cumulative effect of several licensed venues in one area. So the conditions it imposed were about liquor. Typical examples are closing times for liquor service, a cap on patron numbers, limits on music and requirements to close doors and windows at night.

The result was that many venues had two sets of liquor rules: one on the licence from Liquor Control Victoria (LCV), and one on the planning permit from council.

What are the VC286 liquor planning changes?

The VC286 liquor planning changes took effect on 1 July 2025. Amendment VC286 removed clause 52.27 from every planning scheme in Victoria. Since then, a planning permit is no longer needed to sell or consume liquor.

What didn't change:

• The licence. You still need a liquor licence from LCV. Hours, patrons and the licensed area for liquor are now set there.
• The use. Whether a restaurant, food and drink premises, hotel or tavern needs a permit still depends on the zone.
• Buildings and works. These may still need a permit.

If you're opening a new venue, our article on whether you need a planning permit for a liquor licence covers what to check. The rest of this article is about permits that already exist.

What happens to old liquor conditions on my permit?

Removing clause 52.27 didn't reach into existing permits and delete the old liquor conditions. They are still printed there. The question is whether they still do anything.

Plan2Pour's position is that conditions that related solely to clause 52.27 no longer have effect. Conditions tied to a permission the scheme still requires continue to bind. That includes conditions about buildings and works, car parking, signage, or a use that still needs a permit.

The reasoning is simple. A condition isn't a free-standing rule. It qualifies the permission it was attached to. If the scheme no longer requires that permission, a condition whose only job was to qualify it has nothing left to work on. It stays on the paper, but it no longer has effect.

We describe these conditions as having ceased to have effect, not as invalid. They were valid when imposed. The scheme has changed around them.

How do I know which conditions still apply?

This is where the work is. Many permits hold more than one permission: for example, a permit for the use, buildings and works, a car parking reduction and the sale of liquor, all in one document. A condition might relate only to the liquor permission, or it might also relate to one that still exists.

So each permit has to be read condition by condition, against what it was issued for. A patron cap that sat under a liquor heading and only qualified the liquor permission is one thing. A patron cap that also qualifies a use permission the zone still requires is another. Our page on old liquor conditions on your permit explains how we go through it.

What has VCAT said since VC286?

VCAT has started to deal with these questions:

• Ballarat Cinemas (2025). VCAT held that a permit issued only under clause 52.27 has no continuing effect.
• Warrnambool Whalers Hotel (2026). VCAT followed Ballarat Cinemas.
• McDonald's v Darebin (2026). VCAT found that planning conditions can't regulate a use that the zone allows without a permit.

Taken together, these support our position: liquor conditions that only ever belonged to clause 52.27 don't survive its removal, and council can't use planning conditions to control a use the zone already allows as of right.

What is section 69D?

A new section 69D of the Planning and Environment Act points the same way. When it commences, by 29 October 2027 at the latest, it will make permits and conditions cease to have effect where a scheme amendment means a permit is no longer required. That is the same result we say already follows for clause 52.27 conditions. Until it commences, the cases above and the way permits work carry the argument.

How do I clean up my permit?

Even if a condition no longer has effect, it can help to have the record match. There are three main routes:

1. A section 72 amendment. An application to council to change the permit. The assessment is confined to the change sought and doesn't reopen the rest of the permit. In our view, removing a condition that has already ceased to have effect should be a simple administrative change. See change your planning permit.
2. A declaration at VCAT under section 149A, confirming what the permit does and doesn't require.
3. Cancellation at VCAT under section 87, for a permit that was issued only under clause 52.27.

Which route fits depends on the permit, how council is treating it and what you plan to do next.

What if council is still enforcing old liquor conditions?

Some councils are still sending compliance letters that rely on old liquor conditions. If you get one, respond early and in writing. The question is usually whether the condition relied on still binds. A permit is enforced on its terms, not its intent.

We've done this for a bar in bayside south-east Melbourne. Council raised old conditions on patron numbers, liquor hours, music and delivery hours. We put the position that those conditions no longer bound the venue after VC286. Council's legal team reviewed it, agreed, and decided not to contest it in October 2026. The venue now trades free of conditions that had capped it. Read the outcome, or see our enforcement notice service.

A word of caution

We are consultants, not a law firm. Everything above is Plan2Pour's position, based on the planning scheme, the Act and the VCAT decisions to date. It isn't legal advice. Each permit is different, some conditions relate to more than one permission, and a council may take a different view. If you need a binding answer on your permit, a VCAT declaration is the way to get one, and you may also want a lawyer's view alongside our work.

What to do next

If your permit carries old liquor conditions, start with our page on old liquor conditions on your permit. If you're ready to clean up the record, see change your planning permit. Book a 15-minute call and we'll read your permit with you.

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