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Policies and initiatives
> Direction 1. A more compact city
> Policy 1.2
Policy 1.2 - Broaden the base of activity in centres
that are currently dominated by shopping to include a wider range
of services over longer hours, and restrict out-of-centre development
Government can contribute to the growth of strong activity centres
by the decisions it makes about locating public facilities. When
additional facilities and services are located in activity centres,
the provision of public transport services becomes more viable and
people using the centre can make one trip to meet several needs
at one destination. More people, including those without cars, also
have access to the centre.
Significant new education and health facilities – including
secondary schools, university and TAFE campuses, libraries and hospitals
– that attract users from large geographic areas, as well
as justice, community and administrative facilities should be located
in or on the edge of Principal or Major Activity Centres with good
public transport. Such co-location will help share resources and
will make the most of infrastructure and transport services. These
facilities should be located at centres that are within the service
catchment of the facility, and in a type of centre appropriate to
the intensity of service, measured by trip generation, and to the
primary functions of the facility (for example, research and development,
user services).
New small-scale education, health and other community facilities
that meet local needs – including maternal and child health
centres, kindergartens, local branch libraries and primary schools
– will be encouraged to locate in or next to Neighbourhood
Activity Centres. These are important local uses for the community.
Their siting should create effective links with related activities,
reduce the need to make trips, and encourage walking, cycling and
use of local public transport services.
Out-of-centre development
New single-use retail, commercial and recreational facilities that
are remote from other attractions and from public transport generate
in aggregate more car trips and longer journeys than similar facilities
that are co-located and more easily accessible. Where development
takes place distant from an activity centre, that is, ‘out-of-centre’,
it is harder to provide equitable access to services and facilities
for all the population. This form of development does not contribute
to a local sense of place, and encourages people to use their cars
more, thus increasing costs to the community. It can also divert
the activity necessary to sustain a thriving and diverse range of
accessible services at existing activity centres.
Proposals for development or expansion of activities remote from
activity centres will be discouraged by giving preference to locations
in or on the border of an existing activity centre. Out-of-centre
proposals will only be considered where it can be convincingly demonstrated
that the proposed use or development is of net benefit to the community
in the region served by the proposal.
New evaluation criteria will be developed against which these
proposals will be measured (see Out-of-centre
assessment criteria).
Sports and entertainment facilities generate a significant number
of trips. They should be located within or at the edge of activity
centres. Large facilities of metropolitan, State or national significance
may be considered for out-of-centre locations, but they should be
on the Principal Public Transport Network and at locations that
are highly accessible to their catchment of users.
Initiatives
| 1.2.1 |
Lead by example in decisions by State government
departments and agencies on the location of new health, education,
justice, community and administrative facilities, ensuring consistency
with Melbourne 2030 |
| 1.2.2 |
Work with local councils to review their policies
on the location of new community and administrative facilities
for consistency with Melbourne 2030 |
| 1.2.3 |
Adopt new development assessment guidelines
and standards, and review the Victoria Planning Provisions,
to encourage the concentration of new development in activity
centres and to control out-of-centre development |
| 1.2.4 |
Further develop and improve the Melbourne Cricket
Ground/ Melbourne Park/Olympic Park precinct as the major sporting
precinct for Melbourne and ensure that other major sporting
facilities are well located for public transport |
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Out-of-centre
assessment criteria
Criteria will be developed for the assessment of out-of-centre
development proposals. The criteria will establish the tests
appropriate for such proposals, and the types of uses and
developments affected. They will be used in addition to more
localised or site specific assessments required by local planning
policy. Their application will seek to achieve all of the
following outcomes:
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- avoidance of unreasonable impacts on the economic viability
or social and cultural vitality of existing or proposed
centres in the network
- location on and accessible to the Principal Public Transport
Network
- a comparable proportion of work and visitor trips by public
transport, compared to that achieved by similar uses located
in activity centres
- a location in an existing cluster of out-of-centre developments
(or adjacent to such an existing cluster if the site is
already used for non-residential purposes), and improvement
to the economic, social and environmental performance of
that cluster (see ‘Performance
criteria’).
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