By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Ranges Council is seeking an amendment to the planning scheme to address a few minor inaccuracies and anomalies that have cropped up in recent planning applications.
Amendment C223 was discussed at the Tuesday 11 June Council meeting and will be the most recent change to the planning scheme since 2022 if approved by the Minister for Planning.
Streeton Ward Councillor Andrew Fullagar spoke to the motion and said these anomalies come up every now and then and they’ve discovered a number in recent months.
“The key issues tonight really are adjustments to some of the current provisions, extensions of exemptions to allow current uses to continue and rezoning some, sometimes part, properties to make sense of their current uses as well,” he said.
“As can be seen by the report, a lot of work’s been done behind the scenes to bring this to us and it’s just a matter of making these changes and to make sense of some of our provisions.”
As well as establishing new provisions for future applications and preventing further anomalies, six particular properties across the shire will have their concerns addressed if the amendment is approved:
150 Cambridge Road, Kilsyth – The former Yarra Hills Secondary College site purchased by Yarra Ranges Council in 2022 is to be retained as open space following community consultation.
261 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, Ferny Creek – Occupier Proserpina Bakehouse asked that the incorporated document ‘Development and Use of Land for a Food and Drink Premise and a Caretaker’s House’ be amended to reflect the hours of operation for a bakery
72A Milners Road, Yarra Junction – Landowner Melbourne Water requested the now-expired site-specific control be extended for another 10 years
435-437 Maroondah Highway, Lilydale – Landowner Swinburne Children’s Centre requested in a submission on the draft Lilydale Structure Plan that the part of the site that is zoned Residential Growth Zone (RGZ1) be rezoned to include all land within the Commercial 2 Zone (C2Z).
441A Maroondah Highway, Lilydale – The landowner JD’s Sound and Lighting asked that the part of the site that is currently zoned RGZ1 be included in the C2Z as this portion is in the process of being acquired by 439 Maroondah Highway, Lilydale (Yarra Valley Ag) for further business expansion, in which a boundary realignment has been already granted.
1 St Benedict’s Drive, Gladysdale – A prospective purchaser notified Council that the site is included in the Public Conservation and Resource Zone despite being privately owned with a dwelling on the property, and suggested the site should be rezoned to Rural Conservation Zone 3 to reflect its use and the surrounding zoning.
Lyster Ward Councillor Johanna Skelton said she was in complete agreement with the amendment and that we do need these updates to remain accurate.
“Of course, the big item on here probably for this term of council is the rezoning of 150 Cambridge Road, which is in here, proposing to rezone it from a neighbourhood residential zone, which it was zoned of course after it was a school, to be a public park and recreation zone, which is just another exciting stage in that journey to move forward with that project,” she said.
Walling Ward Councillor Len Cox OAM is also excited about the 150 Cambridge Road plans moving forward.
“It is exciting that that wonderful block of 3.6 hectares of land which was the old secondary school has been rezoned to parkland zoning and as said, will stay for the rest of time hopefully and it will make a wonderful park for the people of Kilsyth,” he said.
Overall, Yarra Ranges Council are proposing to correct seven key issues with the amendment:
Mapping Corrections – to rezone or partially rezone properties to be consistent with current or future land use for the sites, as well as address instances where zone boundaries on properties covered by multiple zones did not match property boundaries.
Remove Development Plan Overlay 10 – For the former Yarra Hills Secondary College site 150 Cambridge Road, Kilsyth which facilitated housing
Removing Specific Control Overlays (SCOs) from several sites and changes to associated incorporated documents – will delete the incorporated document ‘Document Incorporated under the Schedule to Clause 52.03 (Specific Sites and Exclusions) of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, March 2017’ which outlined requirements for site-specifics developments which have since been completed or long expired. Three sites will need to have their exemption and expiry dates extended.
Update Schedule 2 to Clause 37.01 Special Use Zone (SUZ2) – update with accurate property addresses for all relevant sites as some don’t align with the actual addresses of each site or do not include the full street address.
Delete outdated references to Environmentally Sustainable Design – Several DDOs in the planning scheme have references that are inconsistent and have now been addressed in the Environmentally Sustainable Development local policy at Clause 15.01-2L in another amendment
Minor correction to Erosion Management Overlay – Correcting a minor grammatical error
