VIC - how fuzzy is 'neighbourhood character' objective?

I know this will vary from council to council, but interested in general experiences...

I want to build two double storey houses by splitting a GRZ block that has a 28m frontage right down the middle. Plenty of space, setbacks from neighbouring houses are fine etc. But on this particular street there is only one double storey house and I'm unsure if council will argue that my proposal is inconsistent with neighbourhood character or visual bulk guidance. Do I need to be worried about this or is the likelihood that they will let me through with maybe a few modifications to profile/form of the double storey designs?

By the way this is not a suburb that I consider to have any real character... crappy 1970s homes, nothing special.

 

Hahaha, sounds pretty safe! Two-storey is perfectly OK regardless of limited examples. Built form will just need to be managed to be transitional. The side by side may be an issue if your council has a specific policy regarding crossovers or preferred character statement discouraging it but your width sounds good so that be a moot point. Really depends on your council and the schedule to your zone although being a GRZ I'd say it's possibly a goer!

 

You may be best looking at subdiviison
If there are no overlays you may not need planning approval for the houses after that
If you apply for two houses then neighbourhood character issues kick in and life can be a little more difficult.i'd seriously investigate what you can do in terms of subdivision and no subsequent planning permit.