Project background:

The draft Community Infrastructure Plan sets the strategic framework to guide Council’s existing and future community infrastructure planning to respond to the needs of the community.

The engagement approach that was undertaken for the Community Infrastructure Plan included:    

• Stage 1: Social Research and broad community engagement via Your Say Yarra online engagement platform and community pop ups – capturing both a baseline understanding from a representative sample and a broad understanding of our community’s expectations and priorities for Yarra.    

• Stage 2: Deliberative process – representative community working group deliberating over a specific dilemma and providing recommendations for Council’s consideration.   You can read more about this process here.

Stage 3: The final stage took place from Friday 11 July to 9am on Monday 11 August 2025. This followed the adoption of the Council Plan, Community Vision Reflection and Update and Financial Plan in June 2025. Within this stage, the draft Community Infrastructure Plan was available for community to review and provide feedback on. This consultation happened alongside the consultations on the draft 10-Year Asset Plan and draft Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan that underwent similar engagement processes to inform their development. 

The information below provides details relating to the final stage of engagement. 

What did we ask?

• What is your level of agreement with objectives 1-6.

• Can you tell us why (and what changes you would like to see)?

• Select the area that you would like to provide feedback on (You can select more than one):

• Abbotsford

• Carlton North and Princes Hill

• Central Richmond

• Clifton Hill

• Collingwood

• Cremorne and Burnley (South Richmond)

• Fairfield and Alphington

• Fitzroy

• Fitzroy North

• North Richmond

• Do you have any suggestions to improve these key considerations for (selected suburb)

• Do you have any suggestions that you think would improve the draft Community Infrastructure Plan?

• Do you have any other comments about the draft Community Infrastructure Plan?

Who did we hear from?

What we heard and how it influenced the final plan?

Alongside the 21 combined online and hard copy responses to the Your Say Yarra survey, there were 7 additional pieces of feedback received. A total of 28 responses were included in the engagement report.

Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the strategic objectives 1 to 6 within the plan. Click the arrows below to see the results for each objective.

Overall, there was considerable agreement with the strategic objectives within the Plan and where there was disagreement participants were asked for additional feedback to understand their responses.

Across the 6 objectives there were several responses to the follow up question Can you tell us why (and what changes you would like to see)?

Some of the themes of these responses included:

• Relocation of the Melbourne Safe Injecting Room (MSIR)

• Structure of the plan and other suggested improvements for clarity

• Seeking additional commitments within objectives

• Accessibility of community engagement to CALD communities

• Public safety

• Council and business partnerships

• Increased transparency

The details of the feedback and the officer responses to Can you tell us why (and what changes you would like to see)? for all 6 objectives are available within the Community Engagement Report.

The open text responses were combined into a single themed table for the Neighbourhood profiles, and any other comments or suggestions provided.

The themes of the feedback from the 28 respondents are presented below. There were 61 suggestions classified into 10 key themes with some feedback including multiple themes.

The details of the feedback and the officer responses are available within the Community Engagement Report.

What happens next?

At the Council Meeting on Tuesday 14 October 2025, Council adopted the Community Infrastructure Plan, a document shaped by evidence and our community’s priorities identified through three stages of consultation.

This document provides a strategic framework to guide Council’s planning for both existing and future community infrastructure across the City of Yarra. It supports decision-making about which services and facilities to prioritise, based on the needs of the community.

Visit the project page

To read more about this consultation please visit the Community Infrastructure Plan project page on Your Say Yarra.