Plan overturned
By Kath Gannaway
17th January 2012 02:00:28 AM
The Independent Panel Report on Amendment C97 supports higher density development to meet future housing needs.
AN INDEPENDENT Panel, appointed by the Minister for Planning,
has demolished Yarra Ranges Council's proposed Planning Scheme Amendment
C97.
In a report released last week, the three-person panel
chaired by John Keaney, effectively sent the council back to the drawing
board, saying Amendment C97 failed the elementary test of any planning
scheme amendment - strong strategic justification.
The proposed
amendment represents the most significant change to Yarra Ranges
Planning Scheme since it was introduced in 2000, and would implement the
2009 Housing Strategy and the 2002 Neighbourhood Character Study, as
well as streamlining controls over minimum block sizes.
More than
150 written submissions were made to the panel and 30 people, including
representatives of Yarra Ranges Council, planning consultants
environment and community groups, and residents were heard at the
seven-day panel hearing late last year.
On the housing strategy,
they stated that the draft 2007 draft strategy was more robust than the
adopted 2009 version, which they said, had “been seriously eroded” and
was beset with problems.
Ironically, the panel accuses Yarra
Ranges Council of an unbalanced response to “exhaustive community
consultation” on the 2007 Housing Strategy, which resulted in 18
proposed consolidation areas across the shire being reduced to 10
including Healesville, Yarra Glen and Yarra Junction in the Yarra
Valley.
Coldstream, where many residents have railed against
dual-occupancy over the past two years, is one of the areas the council
dropped from its consolidation plans, but which the Panel says has
potential for development and would benefit from population growth.A
development overlay prohibiting subdivision below 1000 square metres
was, the panel said, “ … a recipe for no change at all” and a lost
opportunity.They said while community consultation was part of the assessment matrix, it should not be the determining factor.“
… it needs to be balanced against the admirable social and physical
objectives that the original strategy purported to achieve,” and “should
not be viewed only through the narrow prism of local opposition,” the
report states.In Healesville, the panel inspected, in
particular, the Smith Street area, which has been changed from a
consolidation zone to an incremental change zone. Other areas including
along Farnham, Don and Mt Riddell roads had reverted from a
'neighbourhood precinct' in 2007 back to low density residential zone
(LDRZ) without any explanation.
A development overlay applicable
to incremental change areas in Yarra Junction, Healesville and parts of
Woori Yallock, Wandin North and Seville would establish a mandatory
subdivision minimum of 500 square metres.
The panel described the
LDRZ as a de facto minimal change area with state planning
restrictions dictating a 4000-square metre minimum subdivision,
rendering vast areas of the shire as unable, or unlikely, to be more
intensively redeveloped.
The panel was also critical of the State
Government Department of Planning and Community Development which gave
the go-ahead for public exhibition, saying their authorisation of the
housing strategy component of C97 brought into serious question the
rigours of its analysis.
The panel gave two options for Amendment
C97. Option one, that council revisit the strategic basis of its
housing, character and settlement strategies, keep the existing
Municipal Strategy Statement and maintain the existing residential
zones. Discretionary provisions for minimum lot sizes would stay and use
overlays to protect vegetation.
Option two would retain some of
the policy parts of C97, but none of the MSS changes identified as they
are linked to vital strategies which the panel suggests should be
deleted or substantially changed.
Yarra Ranges Council did not respond to questions on Amendment C97 in time for the Mail's deadline.
