Why does there have to be growth and development?

Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia. The city's population is projected to grow from 4.6 million to almost 8 million by 2050, meaning an additional 1.6 million new homes and 1.5 million new jobs will need to be created throughout Melbourne.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic having reduced housing demand by a small margin in the short-term, there still is pressure on accommodating housing growth, now and in the medium to longer-term.

In Yarra, we are planning for this change to make sure new homes and offices are located where existing public transport and other services can be easily accessed (these areas are called ‘Activity Centres’). Appropriately locating new housing in Activity Centres will also help to reduce any negative impacts to existing residential areas (for example; by directing increased traffic toward major roads).

The proposed planning controls (Design and Development Overlays) throughout Fitzroy and Collingwood would manage the built form and design of any new buildings within the Activity Centre areas (including the total building height, how to minimise overshadowing and façade design factors).

Without these Design and Development Overlays, there is no locally specific guidance on the design of new buildings in the Activity Centre areas (for example, no guidance on overall building heights). It is important that we have locally specific planning guidelines in place to ensure new development through Fitzroy and Collingwood is appropriate to each area, and negative impacts to the existing neighbourhoods are minimised.