The strategic framework > Key directions > Better management of metropolitan growth

Better management of metropolitan growth

Outer-city growth must be located close to transport corridors and services.

On the city fringe, concentrating development in compact settlements will have benefits for sustainability while protecting primary production, major sources of raw materials and valued environmental areas. It will help provide efficient and effective infrastructure that supports new development, especially public transport and community services. It will be based on maintaining and enhancing affordable living and on preserving the social and cultural fabric of small towns and rural areas.

Melbourne 2030 reaffirms and strengthens the policy of focusing fringe development in growth areas based around major regional transport corridors, with the bulk of new development to be within accessible distance of the Principal Public Transport Network. Growth areas are designated for large-scale change, over many years, from rural to urban use and will house new communities of the future.

The Strategy establishes an urban growth boundary to contain the urban area. The key growth areas for metropolitan Melbourne are the only areas designated for further urban expansion. Eventually, the focus of growth will need to shift from the south-east to the north and west. The urban growth boundary will limit urban expansion, protect valued non-urban areas, ensure ready access to infrastructure in the key transport corridors and encourage urban renewal.

Figure 19. Managing urban growth - click for more detail

In designated growth areas, preferred development sequences will be defined to better coordinate infrastructure planning and funding. This will include an indicative 10–15 year development and land-supply program, regularly updated, to identify the areas (both greenfield and major infill/redevelopment sites) in which development is expected to meet projected housing demand.

Growth will be managed to produce an urban form that can be serviced efficiently so that public transport services are provided concurrent with development. This will avoid delays in public transport provision that require new residents to commit to multiple car ownership – which tends to entrench car use – and will encourage activity centres with a range of facilities and jobs.

For development within growth areas, new design standards based on the Neighbourhood Principles (see Direction 5, A great place to be) will create communities rather than subdivisions.

Giving long-term certainty about growth areas is important as this will minimise speculative pressures on land values in nearby urban areas and help retain productive rural use. The location of growth areas reflects past policies and expectations, makes best use of existing public transport and major road infrastructure, and takes account of areas of special resource, environmental and landscape significance.

The corridor pattern of development will allow the retention of areas of open land close to most development areas. These green wedges, identified in the 1971 report, Planning policies for the Melbourne Metropolitan Region, are a valued feature of metropolitan Melbourne and have practical and aesthetic benefits.

Environmental assets are highly valued in their own right as well as on aesthetic and economic grounds. Statutory protection will be provided for the green wedges including the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong and Yarra Ranges, Westernport and the Mornington Peninsula to protect these areas from uncontrolled growth. Similar areas in the surrounding region, such as the Macedon Ranges and Bellarine Peninsula, will be considered for equivalent protection as part of local planning policies.

Figure 20. Green wedges - click for more detail