Policies and initiatives > Direction 1. A more compact city > Policy 1.1

Policy 1.1 - Build up activity centres as a focus for high-quality development, activity and living for the whole community

Activity centres in urban settings are used every day as people shop, work, keep appointments, do business or relax. They vary greatly in size and in usage. They may be shopping and community centres at local or regional level. They may be places that provide education and health facilities, such as university campuses or regional hospital complexes.

Activity centres will be the focus of major change in metropolitan Melbourne over the next 30 years. They are uniquely placed to provide for much of the anticipated growth in households. They are, or will be, well-served by public transport, and they offer a wide range of services and facilities benefiting the whole community.

Activity centres will be developed as centres for business, shopping, working and leisure. Most will also contain community facilities related to public administration, education, health and emergency services. They will also be important locations for the development of different types of housing, including forms of higher-density housing.

The key objectives for the development of activity centres are to:

• reduce the number of private motorised vehicle trips by concentrating activities that generate high numbers of (non-freight) trips in highly accessible locations
• encourage economic activity and business synergies
• broaden the mix of uses appropriate to the type of centre and the needs of the population served
• provide focal points for the community at different geographic scales
• improve access by walking, cycling and public transport to services and facilities for local and regional populations
• support the development of the Principal Public Transport Network.

Melbourne 2030 seeks to increase the concentration of activities in metropolitan Melbourne within a network of activity centres, both existing and planned. This network will comprise a range of centres that differ in size and function and are connected by public transport. Catchments of these centres may overlap, allowing as many people as possible the maximum choice in services, employment and social interaction.

The Government intends that the planning, investment and development processes will encourage growth at those activity centres that are well-located. This will discourage developments outside the activity centres, and it will discourage continued growth at centres that cannot meet performance standards for public transport accessibility and other criteria.

Role and function of centres
Metropolitan Melbourne’s activity centres are classified into five types:

• Central Activities District
• Principal Activity Centres
• Major Activity Centres
• Specialised Activity Centres
• Neighbourhood Activity Centres.

The classification defines the role and function of centres, including preferred uses, scale of development and links to the public transport system.

Central Activities District
This is metropolitan Melbourne’s largest centre of activity with the greatest variety of uses and functions and the most intense concentration of development. It provides services and functions such as commercial, retail, housing, highly specialised personal services, education, government and tourism.

The Central Activities District will continue to be the preferred location for activities that have State or national significance, and for activities that have a significant impact as trip generators, drawing users from around the metropolitan area and beyond, and hence benefiting from being at the centre of the Principal Public Transport Network.

The three municipalities that make up Central Melbourne (Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip) contain a rich network of interconnected activity centres of all types. Policy 4.2 describes the function of Central Melbourne and Melbourne 2030’s proposals for reinforcement of its role.

Principal Activity Centres
Metropolitan Melbourne has a network of about 100 Principal and Major Activity Centres. These centres provide some 30 per cent of retail turnover, substantial employment, and a wide variety of recreation and community facilities. Each is an important focus for its surrounding community.

Continued development at Principal Activity Centres provides scope to accommodate ongoing investment and change in retail, office, service and residential markets.

Development of this network of activity centres is critical to metropolitan Melbourne’s future economic performance. The intent is to substantially reinforce the network by connecting the Principal Activity Centres into an expanded public transport network – the Principal Public Transport Network (see Policy 8.1) – and encouraging more mixed-use development in appropriately located centres.

New Principal Activity Centres will have to be on the Principal Public Transport Network or be linked to it as part of the cost of developing the site.

Melbourne’s 25 Principal Activity Centres have, or should have, the following characteristics:

• a mix of activities that generate high numbers of trips, including business, retail, services and entertainment
• being generally well served by multiple public transport routes (many being on the rail network), and on the Principal Public Transport Network or capable of being linked to that network
• a very large catchment covering several suburbs, and attracting activities that meet metropolitan needs
• the potential to grow and support intensive housing developments without conflicting with surrounding land uses.

They have developed along two paths:

• town centres are located at current or planned nodes of the Principal Public Transport Network, and are characterised by a mix of uses. They are the Transit Cities of Dandenong, Frankston, Ringwood, Box Hill, Epping, Broadmeadows, Footscray, Werribee and Sydenham, and the centres of Greensborough, Sunshine, Moonee Ponds, Coburg, Prahran/South Yarra, Camberwell Junction, Glen Waverley, and Cranbourne
• stand-alone centres developed as stand-alone shopping centres during the 1960s and 1970s. They are Chadstone, Highpoint, Southland, Northland, Knox City/Towerpoint, Doncaster, Narre Warren/Fountain Gate and Airport West. Generally they are freestanding, remote from the rail system, and depend largely on car access. Most provide for a lesser range of uses than the longer-established centres, although some have begun to take on a wider role as meeting points for the communities they serve.

The size and/or location of Principal Activity Centres mean they have an especially important role to play as a focus for community activity, services and investment. Melbourne 2030 identifies them as a location for priority government investment and support. The Government will work with the private sector to help effect improvements to public transport at Principal Activity Centres. The Transit Cities program will focus on these centres to produce better, more integrated, land-use and transport outcomes.

Each Principal Activity Centre can serve as a focus for a range of government and community facilities and services. Those that developed as town centres need to have their growth carefully managed, in order to achieve more sustainable transport and to give nearby residents access to many of the benefits at present enjoyed only by residents of inner suburban areas. Those that developed as stand-alone centres will be supported in order to broaden their role, achieve a greater mix of uses, and make them more accessible by public transport through links to the Principal Public Transport Network.

Where catchments overlap in any part of the network of centres, priority for investment and location of significant land uses will be given to Principal Activity Centres.

Major Activity Centres
This classification takes in most of the rest of Melbourne’s largest activity centres. They have similar characteristics to Principal Activity Centres but serve smaller catchment areas.

Continued development at Major Activity Centres supplements the network of Principal Activity Centres and provides additional scope to accommodate ongoing investment and change in retail, office, service and residential markets.

As with Principal Activity Centres, the development of this network of Major Activity Centres is critical to metropolitan Melbourne’s future economic performance. The intent is to substantially reinforce the network by connecting most of these centres into the Principal Public Transport Network (see Policy 8.1) and encouraging more mixed-use development in appropriately located centres.

Melbourne 2030 encourages continued broadening of the range of uses in Major Activity Centres and upgrading of public transport services. Existing Major Activity Centres that lack good public transport links will not be allowed to grow substantially at the expense of better-located centres serving the same catchment. New Major Activity Centres will have to be on the Principal Public Transport Network or be linked to it as part of the cost of developing the site.

Specialised Activity Centres
These important economic precincts play a vital role in metropolitan Melbourne’s economy.

They include:

• Melbourne Airport
• major university campuses
• key research and development precincts, including the specialised precincts of particular importance to the State’s innovation economy, which are identified in the Biotechnology Strategic Development Plan for Victoria as:
  • Parkville medical and bio-scientific institutes (including Bio 21)
  • Prahran – Alfred Medical Research and Education precinct
  • Clayton – Monash University/Health Research precinct – science and technology park (including the proposed Synchrotron)
  • Werribee – animal and food research centre
  • Bundoora – La Trobe and RMIT universities technology parks
  • Heidelberg – Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre Biomedical Alliance precinct – health research.

Specialised Activity Centres provide a mix of economic activities that generate high numbers of work and visitor trips. They require similar transport management responses to other types of large centres. Their planning and development should reinforce their specialised economic function. They should contain only uses that support and are consistent with continued growth in their primary function. Mixed uses that complement the role of these centres are encouraged, but they should not compete with nearby Principal or Major Activity Centres. Nor should these centres attract mixed uses that serve a wider catchment
and might inhibit their specialised role. They must be located on the Principal Public Transport Network.

Future planning and development of the research precincts should emphasise their ability to foster interaction between researchers and industry. Space is required so that new and emerging applications
can benefit from co-location.

Neighbourhood Activity Centres
Metropolitan Melbourne has more than 900 Neighbourhood Activity Centres. These are dominated by small businesses and shops. They offer some local convenience services and at least some public transport.

Their key features are:

• generally, a limited mix of uses meeting local convenience needs
• generally less than 10,000 square metres of retail floor space
• accessible to a viable user population by walking/cycling
• accessibility by local bus services, and public transport links to one or more Principal or Major Activity Centres
• their role as important community focal points, ideally close to schools, libraries, child care, health services, police stations and other facilities that benefit from good public transport.

From a metropolitan perspective, these centres contribute to the goal of encouraging walking, cycling and local public transport use, particularly where they are part of a network of centres. Redevelopment in middle and outer suburbs and development of new growth areas should provide viable locations for Neighbourhood Activity Centres in areas where their current distribution is inadequate.

Their location should be planned in conjunction with the design of local public transport services.

Higher-density housing will be encouraged in and around Neighbourhood Activity Centres. It should be designed to fit the context and enhance the character of the area while providing a variety of housing options for different types of households. Development of these centres can improve access to local services and accommodate the changing housing needs of those who do not want to break their links with their local community.

Figure 27. Network of activity centres (including list of centres by location and classification)
- click for more detail

See Addendum to Melbourne 2030: Activity Centre and Principal Public Transport Network Plan for the updated list of activity centres and the revised PPTN. This addendum replaces pages 50-51 of Melbourne 2030, Planning for sustainable growth, 2002.