Plan overturned

By Kath Gannaway
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.