Implementation plans > Green wedges > What are they?

What are they?
Green wedges are the open landscapes that were set aside, more than 30 years ago, to conserve rural activities and significant natural features and resources between the growth areas of metropolitan Melbourne as they spread
out along major road and rail links.

The definition of green wedges has been loose and conceptual. In the context of Melbourne 2030, discussion has encompassed the wider issue of protecting other non-urban areas around metropolitan Melbourne. Therefore, a wider definition of green wedges has been adopted for the purposes of Melbourne 2030 and this draft Implementation Plan.

Where are they?
The green wedges are distributed outside the urban growth boundary in a broad arc around metropolitan Melbourne (see Figure 1). They are listed below, with their boundaries:

• Werribee South – the Port Phillip Bay coastline, the western edge of the City of Wyndham and the Melbourne–Geelong rail line
• Western Plains South – the Melbourne–Geelong rail line, the western boundary of the City of Wyndham, the Western Highway west of Melton, the southern edge of Melton township and the Ballarat rail line
• Western Plains North – the Ballarat rail line, the northern edge of Melton township, the Western Highway, the western and northern boundaries of Melton Shire and the Calder freeway
• Sunbury – the Calder freeway and the northern and eastern boundaries of the City of Hume
• Whittlesea – the western boundary, northern boundary and eastern boundary of the City of Whittlesea
• Nillumbik – the western, northern and eastern boundaries of the City of Nillumbik and portions of the City of Manningham near the Yarra River
• Manningham – the Yarra River and the eastern boundary of the City of Manningham
• Yarra Valley and Yarra and Dandenong Ranges – the western, northern and eastern boundaries of the Shire
  of Yarra Ranges and the northern boundary of the Westernport catchment
• Southern Ranges – the northern boundary of the Westernport catchment, the eastern boundary of the Shire of Cardinia and the electrical transmission easement east of Pakenham
• South East – the area between the Bayside and Dandenong/Cranbourne urban areas and the northern boundary of the Westernport catchment
• Westernport – the electrical transmission easement east of Pakenham, the eastern and southern boundaries of the Shire of Cardinia, the western boundary of the City of Casey and Westernport
• Mornington Peninsula – part of the northern boundary of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula and the south-eastern boundary of the City of Frankston

Figure 1. Green wedges - click for more detail

What is their role?
The green wedges fulfill a range of specific roles that include:

• providing opportunities for agricultural uses, such as market gardening, viticulture and broad hectare farming
  
• preserving rural and scenic landscapes
  
• preserving conservation areas close to where people live
  
• preserving renewable and non-renewable resources and natural areas (such as water catchments)
  
• providing and safeguarding sites for infrastructure that supports urban areas (such as airports and sewage plants)
  
• allowing industries such as sand and stone extraction to operate close to major markets
  
• enabling the development of networks of open space
  
• providing opportunities for tourism and recreation.

Figure 2. Significant environmental resources and constraints - click for more detail

These roles and the benefits they bring can be variously ascribed to natural features, historical urban growth patterns and the deliberate policies of successive governments. They also bring significant economic, environmental and social benefits, and show the advantage of long-term planning policies.

Green wedges have practical as well as intrinsic values. They provide natural resources, such as stone or sand, and opportunities for agriculture. They provide open spaces for city-dwellers and a home for those who enjoy living in
a more open landscape. They protect natural features that the community values, and, by their nature and physical existence, they have affected the shape of metropolitan Melbourne by imposing limits to urban development.

Appendix 1 provides an overview of the inherent features and prevailing values of green wedges (see Figures 2, 3 and 4).

Figure 3. Significant water resources - click for more detail

Figure 4. Significant agricultural resources - click for more detail

What are the aims of this plan?
Melbourne 2030 aims to achieve a fundamental change in the relationship of rural areas to metropolitan Melbourne. It will focus growth in areas best able to be served with transport and other infrastructure and concentrate new urban development in areas best able to cope with that change, to sustain the values of the green wedges outside them. Clarifying where urban development will be allowed and where rural activities and environmental values are to prevail will enable landowners in green wedges to plan and invest with greater certainty.

This plan builds on Melbourne 2030 by explaining how outside the urban growth boundary (UGB), priority in planning and development will go to agriculture, conservation, natural resource-based uses, airports and ports, tourism, and the protection of important water catchments.

What does it change?
The green wedges will be subject to improved protection through tougher planning controls, legislative change and improved on-ground action.

The UGB will limit urban development to areas that can best accommodate growth, keeping development from locations that are inappropriate or where other values should prevail.

New zones will tighten the range of uses that are allowed in green wedges so that uses better suited to urban areas are confined to locations inside the UGB.

Legislation will be introduced to underpin the protection of the green wedges.

Action plans will be developed for all green wedges, to complement the plans of individual municipalities.

The Ministerial Direction No. 6 – Rural Residential Development will be widened to include larger residential lots. Future planning for rural residential development will maintain natural resource attributes and protect existing environmental qualities, such as remnant native vegetation and biodiversity, which are declining or threatened in many areas. Planning provisions will be reviewed to limit housing on isolated lots in rural areas where services are minimal, and to support agriculture and industries based on natural resources.

What are the implications for local government?
Despite much good work at the local government level, there has been some inconsistency in the application of planning policies, management measures, priorities and resource allocation in green wedges.

This points to the need for a clearer policy and action framework for green wedges, linked to positive information about where non-urban values will prevail and where urban development will be encouraged.

Beyond firmer planning policy and regulation there must also be active involvement by State and local government in issues such as land management, vegetation restoration, water quality improvement and weed and animal pest control.