Plan for Victoria is a highly anticipated refresh of the State’s overarching strategic planning policy.

This update comes 8 years after its predecessor, Plan Melbourne, which was forged in a very different economic, social, political and infrastructural landscape. Plan Melbourne identified the key issues as population growth and the need to limit urban sprawl and consolidate additional housing in areas closer to the CBD. This resulted in more of a city-centric plan with little regard for the State’s regional areas or needs. Plan for Victoria shifts the strategy to a state-wide level, seeking to develop and grow our State’s regional areas.

We are pleased to see these areas considered in the Plan. However, the question remains – will this new strategy bear fruit for Victoria’s regional cities and towns, or is this merely a change in the name?

There are 5 key pillars for action established within the Plan.

Housing for all Victorians

It comes as no surprise that Victorians want well-designed, affordable homes in well-connected areas. The Plan aims to provide just that, with the goal of 2.24 million new homes across metropolitan and regional Victoria in the next 30 years.

The Premier’s forward acknowledges Victoria’s housing crisis, establishing it as the salient issue faced by planning in the State. At Ratio, we share this concern for the accessibility of well-located housing for all Victorians and we appreciate that the Plan addresses the issue clearly.

Many of the actions outlined in the document are brief and vague, often deferring action to other documents or strategies or simply stating that actions will be taken in the future. For example, in seeking to accommodate growth in well-serviced Melbourne suburbs, the Plan promises to ‘hold Councils accountable with explicit directions to change planning schemes’ without disclosing what these directions will be. Action 1 elaborates on this by seeking to implement housing targets for each local government area (LGA).

The action asserts that any LGA that fails to provide the needed resources to help reach the goal of 2.24 million dwellings state-wide by 2055 will require “timely reviews and updates” – a measure unlikely to incentivise the required housing growth to meet this target. We would have liked to see more specificity and boldness around how this action will be implemented and measured, for instance, by introducing financial incentives/disincentives for reaching/failing to reach specific LGA targets.

Accessible jobs and services

Victorians value easy access to jobs, education, healthcare, shops, and services, and the Plan recognises that a healthy economy relies on equitable access to these opportunities.

Our transport engineers and designers are all about well-designed, safe, and sustainable ways of getting Victorians where they need to go. It is encouraging to see that the Plan focuses on improving public transport networks, bike paths, and the provision of bike and scooter parking requirements. As the Plan continues to evolve, we hope to see a decreased requirement for car parking provisions in combination with this bike and scooter parking for our clients.

Although the Plan outlines investment in public transport, it is still a very Melbourne-centric approach. It is unclear what changes will be made in regional areas beyond the vague aim to have ‘most people in Melbourne and the regional cities live within a 10-minute walk (800 metres) of public transport’. A more specific target for what ‘most people’ is would clarify what this means for regional Victoria.

Great places, suburbs and towns

Plan for Victoria sets out that green spaces are great spaces, and that better public, open spaces should be available to all Victorians. As Landscape Architects, Planners and Transport professionals, we tend to agree!

We see several key actions in the Plan as of direct relevance to many of our upcoming projects:

Action 12 / Protect and enhance our canopy trees. Plan for Victoria is aiming to increase canopy cover to 30 per cent to deliver significant health and wellbeing benefits. We support the increased canopy goal and recognise the numerous benefits a greener Victoria can bring. However, achieving this goal will require additional effort and thoughtful planning from landscape architects, particularly when working with smaller lots, higher-density areas and the challenges posed by increasing underground services. We are also mindful that for a tree to be included in urban forestry and canopy calculations, it must achieve a minimum mature canopy diameter of 6 metres.

Action 13 / Minimum standards and guidance for open space in urban areas. For growing communities, we’re excited to see this introduced.

Action 15 / Update design guidance to deliver better public places. Places are to be more welcoming to everyone in the community, and the State is encouraging more Movement and Place frameworks.

As industry leaders in developing and applying the Movement and Place in Victoria framework, we understand that transport studies that take a more holistic approach to Movement and Place (as opposed to just Movement) help our clients effectively plan for the future.

Through the effective integration of transport, land use and the public realm, the Movement and Place approach brings together multiple disciplines – establishing aspirations for street networks, testing potential future options, and catering to changing conditions such as increased residential density and employment floor area or changed visitation characteristics.

We welcome the integration of Movement and Place into more of what we do, enabling us to deliver the best possible outcomes for the streets and places we live.

Sustainable environments

This pillar outlines how the plan aims to protect Victoria’s environment, agricultural land, and natural resources for a sustainable and healthy future.

It’s pleasing to see that the Plan for Victoria embraces climate-resilient urban planning, renewable energy investments, sustainable agriculture, and, of course, waste reduction/minimisation and a circular economy. As a key part of our consulting services at Ratio, our expertise in waste management and minimisation now extends across Australia, and it’s great to see the Victorian government planning for environmental footprint minimisation.

Action 18 of the plan aims to ‘Improve the environmental sustainability of development’ via reduced environmental footprints of apartments. We support this goal and view the current implementation of a four-bin system for the diversion of organics from general waste and glass from recycling as only the beginning. We hope that the State continues to move towards a more unified and consistent waste planning approach, and we anticipate that the next step is waste planning with circularity in mind for precincts, including residential and non-residential development proposals. We’re big supporters of Local Government areas (LGAs) working with a stable framework to deliver waste services and assess development proposals in terms of waste management.

It will not surprise many that we’re also supportive of the State Government’s intent to continue to invest in the waste, recycling and resource recovery infrastructure required to deliver the overall improvements in Sustainable Environments cited as part of Recycling Victoria: A new economy. We see recycling infrastructure as a huge next step for the State as we work towards a more sustainable future.

Self-determination and caring for Country

“Wherever you are in Victoria, you are on the Country of Traditional Owners. And Country is directly affected by how we plan our cities and regions.” – Plan for Victoria.

The Plan for Victoria acknowledges the rights of Traditional Owners to make decisions for their Country and recognizes First Peoples’ right to self-determination. This pillar remains open for ongoing engagement with Traditional Owners and First Peoples.

It is encouraging to see that engagement with Traditional Owners has been ongoing throughout the formation of the Plan for Victoria and that it appears to have yielded some valuable findings that can help guide what Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples value and how planning can further these identified areas.

Reference to the Yoorrook Justice Commission (est. 2021) is also important as this body has been established post the Plan’s predecessor (Plan Melbourne).

Apart from Action 21, we once again encounter a lack of detail and specifics regarding the scope of these actions. Under Action 21, the implementation of Burndap Birrarung Burndap into the scheme is a specific, direct and measurable commitment. However, the other Actions that refer to Traditional Owners’ interests fail to incorporate such commitments.

Overall, we welcome the new ‘Plan for Victoria’, its inclusion of our regional areas and the rational picture it paints for the State as a whole. We look forward to seeing how this plan guides us through the next 30 years of development.

If you have questions about how the Plan for Victoria might affect your future project, we’re across the detail. Contact us at mail@ratio.com.au