Building design & drafting in Mentone.

What's built here

Kingston's draft Heritage Review identifies Mentone — with Mordialloc and Parkdale — as holding some of the best remaining examples of Victorian and Federation period homes in the municipality. Council's own history notes Mentone stayed largely free of dominant structures until around 2000, with unit development and backyard subdivision increasing since.

The planning context

Mentone is a Major Activity Centre with its own structure plan, and the level crossing removal has sharpened redevelopment pressure — a proposed five-storey commuter car park drew hundreds of objections, and a nine-storey tower has been built on the former ten-pin bowl site. Under Amendment C203king, pockets near the centre received General Residential Zone at three storeys, with areas further out proposed at two storeys under Neighbourhood Residential Zone. Notably, council did not adopt the full three-storey catchment the panel recommended.

Controls that actually apply in Mentone

• Heritage Overlay HO128 — Applies to 86 Mentone Parade, via Amendment C215king gazetted in March 2024 — an individual listing rather than a precinct.
• The cliffs, not the floodplain — Mentone's coastal issue is erosion, not inundation. The white clay foreshore cliffs have a documented erosion-management history going back decades. That is a materially different engineering and planning problem to the flooding that governs Chelsea a few suburbs south — and conflating the two is a common mistake.
• Zone position — Whether you are in the three-storey GRZ pocket or the two-storey NRZ area is the decisive question for any multi-dwelling proposal.

Check what sits over your own title in two minutes, free: search your address on the Victorian Government's planning property report. Send it to us and we can usually tell you whether a permit is likely from one conversation.

What we typically do in Mentone

Heritage-sensitive renovations to Victorian and Federation villas; backyard subdivision and townhouse infill; low and mid-rise apartment work near the station; cliff-adjacent builds where erosion, not flood, is the constraint.

Whatever the type, the documentation is the same discipline: architectural drafting drawn to be built, town planning drawings council can assess first time, and working drawings a builder can price without padding.

Planning controls change — amendments are gazetted regularly. Everything above was accurate at the time of writing, but confirm current controls for your specific address before relying on them.

Talk to us about your Mentone project

Send us the address and the planning property report and we will tell you what applies — before you commit to anything. Get in touch, or see everywhere else we work.