This week the state government have released their ‘Activity Centers’ Plan for public consultation. The plan sees the designation of ten centers across suburban Melbourne where planning controls will be changed to facilitate a greater intensity of development. The aim of the activity centers plan is to deliver more homes and services in places people want to live.
Each centre will have its own set of guidelines for outcomes related to heights, setbacks, solar access and others. The overarching aim of the guidelines will be to increase density and development in a controlled and transparent way.
The guidelines that have been released for comment are Broadmeadows, Camberwell, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie/North Essendon, Preston and Ringwood, visible at this link.
Public consultation on the plans is scheduled to run until 29/09/24. Following this the plans will be finalised and presented to the Minster for Planning for a decision on their formal introduction to planning schemes in December 2024.
The Activity Centre plans would effectively supersede any local council planning frameworks for these locations. We expect this will create political tension between the state government and local council so we will wait and see if these ambitious plans are approved by the Minister to be introduced to planning schemes.