How Are Public and Private Views Considered in a Visual Impact Assessment?

Visual Impact Assessment

Visual change can be experienced from streets, parks and other public places, as well as from homes and private property. A Visual Impact Assessment may consider both, but public and private views do not necessarily raise the same assessment or planning questions.

In Brief

Public and private views can both be relevant to a Visual Impact Assessment. Public views are experienced from publicly accessible places, while private views are experienced from private property. The distinction does not establish that one type of view is automatically more important than the other. It helps identify who may experience visual change, where that experience occurs and which assessment considerations may apply.

What is a public-domain view?

A public-domain view is a view experienced from a publicly accessible location. Depending on the project and surrounding environment, this might include a street, footpath, park, public open space, walking route, recreational area, lookout or another place used by the public.

The people experiencing those views may include local residents moving through the area, pedestrians, recreational users, visitors, road users or other groups. Within visual assessment, these people can form part of the relevant visual receptor groups.

A Visual Impact Assessment does not necessarily assess every publicly accessible location individually. Representative viewpoints may instead be selected to help understand how relevant receptors could experience the proposed visual change.

What is a private-domain view?

A private-domain view is experienced from private property rather than from a publicly accessible location.

For residential properties, this may include views from living areas, balconies, terraces, bedrooms, kitchens, gardens or private open spaces. Other types of private property can also contain relevant viewing locations depending on the project and assessment scope.

The relevance of a private view depends on the planning context and the reason the view is being assessed. In some cases, the assessment may be concerned with broader visual effects. In others, the specific issue may be the loss or obstruction of an existing view from a neighbouring property.

In NSW, where private-domain view loss is a specific planning issue, view-sharing considerations may apply. See How Is View Loss Assessed in NSW?

The distinction between public and private views is not simply about which view matters more. It helps identify who experiences the visual change, where that experience occurs and which assessment considerations may apply.

Are public and private views assessed in the same way?

Not necessarily. Public and private views can involve different receptors, viewing circumstances and planning considerations.

A public viewpoint might represent many people passing through or using a particular place. A private view may be experienced repeatedly by a smaller number of people from a home or other property. The duration, purpose and circumstances of viewing can therefore be different.

The applicable assessment methodology, project type, jurisdiction and planning requirements determine how those circumstances should be considered. A VIA should therefore respond to the project rather than applying a universal rule to all public and private views.

The distinction also does not mean that every private view requires a private view-loss assessment, or that every public view requires a separate assessment viewpoint.

How are public views considered in a VIA?

Public-domain assessment begins by understanding where relevant visual receptors may experience the proposal and which locations can meaningfully represent those experiences.

A viewpoint may be selected because it represents a particular receptor group, an important public place, a commonly experienced view or another location relevant to the assessment. Potential visibility can help inform this process, but visibility alone does not determine which locations should become assessment viewpoints.

From those locations, the assessment can consider the existing visual environment and how the proposed development may change the view experienced by relevant receptors.

For more on this process, see How Are Viewpoints Selected for a Visual Impact Assessment?

How are private views considered?

Private views may be relevant where people experience a proposed visual change from homes or other private property.

The assessment may need to establish where the view is experienced, what can currently be seen and how the proposal could change that visual experience. The required level of investigation depends on the project and the planning question being addressed.

Where access to a private property is available and the view from that property is material to the assessment, site photography or other visual evidence may help establish the existing condition. Where access is unavailable, the limitations of the available evidence may need to be recognised.

If the specific issue is private-domain view loss in NSW, a more focused view-sharing assessment may be required rather than treating the question solely as a general VIA viewpoint.

Does every private property need to be assessed?

No. A Visual Impact Assessment does not automatically require an individual assessment of every private property surrounding a development.

The appropriate scope depends on the proposal, its potential visual effects, the surrounding environment, relevant planning requirements and the assessment methodology being applied.

For some projects, particular properties may be identified because of their relationship with the proposed development or because private view impacts have been raised as a specific planning issue. Other projects may primarily require assessment of public-domain visual effects.

The assessment scope should therefore be established from the project requirements rather than from a fixed assumption that all surrounding properties must be individually inspected.

Does every public location need a viewpoint?

No. The purpose of viewpoint selection is generally to establish locations that meaningfully represent relevant visual experiences, not to photograph every place from which a development might be visible.

Several nearby locations may provide similar views of a proposal. In other circumstances, a relatively small change in location may produce a materially different view because of topography, vegetation, built form, screening or the relationship between the viewer and the proposal.

Representative viewpoints allow the assessment to focus on locations that help explain the visual effects relevant to the project while avoiding unnecessary repetition.

This is different from simply mapping everywhere a proposal may potentially be visible.

Is a public view automatically more important than a private view?

No universal rule makes every public view more important than every private view, or every private view more important than every public view.

The relevance of a view depends on the applicable assessment framework and the circumstances in which the visual change is experienced. A heavily used public lookout and a residential living area, for example, involve different receptor groups and viewing circumstances rather than simply occupying opposite positions in a hierarchy.

Depending on the methodology, matters such as the receptor's relationship with the view, viewing activity, duration or frequency of exposure and qualities associated with the visual environment may contribute to how the view is assessed.

The relevant question is therefore not simply whether a view is public or private, but how that particular visual experience should be considered within the assessment.

Can the same development affect public and private views differently?

Yes. The same development can create very different visual experiences when viewed from different locations.

A proposal might be partly screened from a public street but more exposed from an elevated residence. Conversely, it may be prominent from a public lookout while being largely screened from nearby private properties.

Distance, orientation, elevation, foreground elements, vegetation, built form and the composition of the existing view can all influence how much of the proposal is experienced from a particular location.

This is why a VIA considers visual effects in relation to defined receptors and viewpoints rather than assuming that one view of the development represents every viewing experience.

How does visual sensitivity relate to public and private views?

The public or private status of a viewpoint does not, by itself, establish its visual sensitivity.

Depending on the methodology, sensitivity may consider the type of receptor, the purpose and circumstances of viewing, the relationship between the receptor and the visual environment, and qualities or values associated with the view.

It is therefore not appropriate to assume that a resident is always assigned a particular sensitivity simply because the view is private, or that a road user must always have a lower sensitivity because the view is experienced from the public domain.

The concept is explained further in What Is Visual Sensitivity in a Visual Impact Assessment?

What visual evidence can be used?

The evidence required depends on the assessment scope, but photography commonly helps document the existing visual environment from relevant public or private locations.

Plans, elevations, project dimensions, site information and 3D project geometry may help establish how the proposed development relates to those views. Where appropriate or required, photomontages can provide a visual representation of the proposed change from a defined viewpoint.

The value of that material depends on whether it is appropriate for the question being assessed and whether the relationship between the viewpoint, existing photograph and proposed development is represented reliably.

See When Are Photomontages Used in a Visual Impact Assessment? for their role within a VIA.

For the quality of that evidence, see What Makes a Photomontage Reliable for Visual Impact Assessment?

Public and private views within the wider VIA

Distinguishing between public and private views helps define the visual experiences relevant to a proposed development, but it is only one part of the wider assessment.

A VIA may also consider visual receptors, representative viewpoints, existing visual conditions, visual amenity, visual sensitivity and the nature or magnitude of the proposed visual change, depending on the project and methodology.

These considerations help explain not only where a development can be seen, but how different people may experience that change from different locations.

The appropriate balance of public and private assessment should therefore be established from the proposal, surrounding visual environment, planning requirements and applicable assessment methodology rather than from a fixed hierarchy of views.