Council last night adopted the Managed Growth Strategy to guide residential growth in Greater Bendigo over the next 30 years.
Increased life expectancy amongst existing residents, local birth increases and new residents moving to the region will all contribute to around 87,000 new residents calling Greater Bendigo home by 2056.
The Managed Growth Strategy sets out a framework for how a long-term supply and diversity of housing will be delivered to cater for the growing number of smaller households and to promote housing in well serviced locations free from constraints.
The strategy establishes a policy position that over the long term 70 per cent of all dwellings in urban Greater Bendigo will be located in the established areas (existing suburbs), with 30 per cent in potential growth areas including in Marong, Huntly, Maiden Gully and Strathfieldsaye.
Councillors also approved the Council resolution to adopt the Managed Growth Strategy with the inclusion of land in Ravenswood (on the east side of the Calder Highway) as an investigation area but noted that City of Greater Bendigo officers will prioritise the planning of identified potential growth areas including Huntly, Maiden Gully, Marong and Strathfieldsaye.
Based on an assumed growth rate of 1.6 per cent each year, it will mean 38,000 additional dwellings will be needed with around 32,000 of these located in urban Bendigo. The strategy will ensure the City is well positioned to meet the housing growth needs for a leading regional municipality.
The Managed Growth Strategy has been informed by a number of background studies including the new Housing and Neighbourhood Character Strategy, which was also adopted at Council last night.
Also presented at the Council meeting was an amendment package to implement the Managed Growth Strategy and Housing and Neighbourhood Character Strategy into the planning scheme. Any proposed rezonings recommended through this amendment would be the subject of a separate formal exhibition process, with anyone potentially impacted by the amendment having an opportunity to provide a submission.
Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf said the Managed Growth Strategy was critical to plan for future growth over the next three decades.
"We all want Greater Bendigo to remain a great place to live into the future and our direction has changed to accommodate the predicted growth," Cr Metcalf said.
"In the past, the preferred solution was to rezone land for housing on the outskirts of urban Bendigo to accommodate population growth. Houses delivered in these areas are nearly all detached dwellings of three or more bedrooms.
"This form of housing has met market demand and will continue to meet it in the short to medium term, but a greater diversity of housing types is needed to meet future community needs.
"The strategy brings a fresh direction to managing growth. It has been prepared to make best use of existing infrastructure, to limit development in areas of environmental risk, particularly the potential impacts of flooding and bushfire, and better enable residential development in well serviced locations to reduce the need for residents to drive to access shops, facilities and public spaces.
"With this strategy, more residents will be living in various types of housing around existing commercial centres, along major transport corridors and near train stations."
An action plan has been developed to support the newly adopted strategy:
Planning approach:
- Progress Planning Scheme Amendment C287gben to implement the Managed Growth Strategy and Housing and Neighbourhood Character Strategy
- Exhibit Planning Scheme Amendments for Golden Square (C270gben) and the Bendigo City Centre (C279gben)
- Progress privately led Planning Scheme Amendments for identified precincts within the Marong Township Structure Plan
- Progress a residential framework plan for Maiden Gully
- Progress Structure Plans for Huntly, Elmore and Goornong
- Progress a Planning Scheme Amendment to implement the recommendations of the Development Plan Overlay (DPO) and Design and Development Overlay (DDO) review
Development help:
- Hold a series of in person information sessions to help landowners to better understand the planning process and progress small developments. Information sessions may cover topics such as: building a second dwelling, developing a dual occupancy or other small scale development in the Bendigo market, building in a Heritage Overlay, understanding the land subdivision process and associated costs, understanding compliance, and establishing a home-based business.
