Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Are you keen for a new-look Yarra Ranges Council? - Council - News - Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader

Are you keen for a new-look Yarra Ranges Council? - Council - News - Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader

1 comment:

Gillysrooms said...

In my opinion a new set of Councillors apart from a couple would be a good move if the new Councillors are more open to encuraging and allowing tourism & other commercial businesses to expand and flourish as the new State Govt proposed Planning Scheme would permit.

My reading of Yarra Ranges Council submission the current council have endorsed a plan to limit tourism ventures and ration events in the Rural and GWZ Zones due to traffic congestion and limited police & VicRoads traffic management staff concerns as well a red tape management by council officers as detailed on page 21 of the Council submission to the Minister of Planning.

in part..."Place of Assembly– Yarra Ranges supports allowing some of the specialised uses included in ‘place of assembly’ to facilitate concerts, cultural events or festivals occurring in the Green Wedge Zone. It is suggested that these be subject to the conditions currently under the Farming Zone and limited to a prescribed number per year per property. This is considered a fair approach and allows a more equitable distribution of events among the existing farms, wineries and landholdings. Council also seeks to condition these events to be in association with agriculture, natural systems or in some way directly promoting rural areas and green wedge values.

In Council’s experience there are a number of issues associated with management of these events which require Council resources including health and food permits,liquor licenses etc and overall they are quite resource intensive. Depending on the size of the event, the management of traffic and patrons at these events in
coordination with Vic Roads and Vic Police will also stretch limited resources of all agencies. It is suggested that key summer weekends will see multiple major events resulting in serious traffic management and safety issues on the main roads in the Dandenong Ranges and the Yarra Valley. It should be noted that most of the rural areas are well outside the range of public transport and taxi zones.

There is an opportunity to review the various definitions under Place of Assembly, as a ‘one off event’ is difficult to manage under the planning system and consideration should be given to managing temporary events similar to circuses and carnivals where they are allowed as of right providing they comply with a detailed Code of Practice. Equally, many tourist venues combine various uses such as function centres, restaurants, exhibition centres.

Markets – Council supports ‘market’ being included as a section 2 use in all rural zones. Markets are appropriate tourism uses which promote agricultural values of the area.

Bed and Breakfast – Council does not support the proposed change from 6 – 10 person"

A new group of Concillors would hopefully be thinking outside the box and not have been indroctinated into thinking everything must remain the same as before.