TALKS on reducing planning red tape are to take place between Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford and Planning Minister Richard Wynne, this week.
Ms Pulford said the talks followed concerns about councils stifling agricultural development, close to urban centres, by rigorous interpretation of planning rules.
"I understand Mr Wynne's office has also met with the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) and is continuing to work with it, and local councils, to make sure our planning rules strike the right balance," Ms Pulford said.
Matters came to head when the Murrindindi council turned down an intensive animal husbandry permit for David Blackmore's Wagyu operation, at Alexandra.
Council planning officers recommended the permit be issued, subject to conditions, but council knocked it back, after objections about smell and noise.
"It's important to make sure we get the balance right between supporting and growing our vital agricultural sector and land users, and community concerns around planning and the environment," Ms Pulford said.
"However, I am concerned about some recent cases where we are seeing farming families who have been on the land for generations now required to seek a permit to farm. "
Ms Pulford said clarification was being sought around the interpretation of the current planning definition of intensive agricultural production, which the permit was based.
It also followed a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) ruling that a Wandin North, Yarra Valley, organic piggery should be classified as a intensive animal husbandry.
VCAT deputy president Helen Gibson found Happy Valley Free Range, in McKillop Road, was an intensive operation and unlawful, under the Yarra Ranges planning scheme.
Ms Gibson made her ruling on the food source, which supplied the animal's primary nutritional needs, rather than simply volume of product brought onto the site.
"The emphasis in the definitions of extensive animal husbandry and intensive animal husbandry is on the main source of food for the animals - and whether it comes from the land itself, or is imported," Ms Gibson said.
Speaking at the Victorian Agribusiness Summit, Red Hill, last week, VFF policy and commodities executive manager Peter Hunt said the Blackmore's decision was "political.
"The town planners put up 20 pages, showing it was an appropriate use for this property," Mr Hunt said.
But the decision was just one more case, in a long long line of controversial issues surrounding the 'right to farm.'
He said one, which had recently been resolved, was at Echuca.
The Campaspe Shire council initially knocked back an intensive animal husbandry permit for grazier John Watson, Echuca Park.
"TALKS on reducing planning red tape are to take place between Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford and Planning Minister Richard Wynne, this week. - they weren't just houses, this was a residential development like suburbia," Mr Hunt said.
It was time for clear guidelines to be established around what was meant by intensive animal husbandry permits.
He said the VFF was there to protect the productive base, on which agriculture was founded.
"What we are seeing is the erosion of the planning regulations, around this," Mr Hunt said.
He said councils faced a challenge, between protection of agricultural and encouraging development.
This was particularly evident in areas like Gippsland, where the coastal fringe was very popular among retirees.
"We have ended up, in South Gippsland, where a dairy farmer needs to expand but the property next door has a bloody great house on it - which adds another $500,000 to the price," Mr Hunt said.
"But the farmer wants unencumbered land and access to it.
"We need to identify what we want to protect and where we want development to occur," he said.
Mr Hunt said there had been "complete indifference" from the State Government for seed funding, and a small amount of ongoing money, to help set up rural advisory committees to help councils.