Thursday, 26 May 2022

Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Regional Strategy Plan

Mr WYNNE (Richmond—Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing) (10:06): I move:

That under section 46D(1)(c) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987, amendment 122 to the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Regional Strategy Plan be approved.

I am delighted to make a contribution on this important amendment.

A member: And I will be delighted to hear it.

Mr WYNNE: Thank you very much to my opposition colleague. The Yarra Ranges Shire Council requested that I amend the regional strategy plan (RSP) to facilitate changes to the Yarra Ranges planning scheme to include more contemporary and effective planning provisions. Amendment of the regional strategy plan requires approval, obviously, by Parliament according to the Planning and Environment Act, part 3A. An update to the regional strategy is required to enable council to implement a major review of the Yarra Ranges planning scheme, and any amendment must be consistent with the regional strategy plan. Of course both went through a public exhibition process, an opportunity for these matters to be ventilated in a very robust and transparent way. Amendment 122, which updates the regional strategy plan, replaces outdated terminology and provisions. The Shire of Yarra Ranges is the only municipality which has a regional strategy plan to protect its unique character and townships. This is an administrative but necessary update so that the council’s planning scheme review, which is amendment C148, can be implemented.

Moving now to amendment C148, C148 is a comprehensive planning scheme review. These are done, as I am sure members would be aware, every couple of years by councils to ensure their planning schemes are up to date and reflect their strategic direction. It also makes sure such things are aligned with current state policies in planning, so it is a very important thing for councils to continue to update their planning schemes. Amendment 122 proposes changes to clauses within three chapters of the RSP. These include removing the need for a permit for vegetation removal where it is not required by the planning scheme—for example, where vegetation has died or is unsafe. It will assist with safe and efficient vegetation removal after storms or fires and make sure it is consistent with existing planning overlays relating to vegetation.

It updates the activity centre hierarchy terminology so it is consistent with other planning schemes. They were previously called commercial centres; they are now called activity centres. This removes outdated terminology. It removes reference to ‘intensive agricultural policy areas’, where rural and green wedge zones can manage these through updated decision guidelines, and it removes ‘major tourist facilities’, which was too broad and confusing a term. It also updates references to restaurants so they can be located in conjunction with agriculture, natural systems, outdoor recreation facilities, rural industries or a winery rather than just tourism accommodation.

The exhibited version of amendment C122 included the removal of tenement provisions from the RSP, which restricts the number of houses that can be placed on land in one ownership. This change was not supported by the panel, and I accepted the panel’s recommendation to retain the tenement provisions in the RSP. Council, I note, is supportive of this in total as it removes a lot of red tape and inconsistencies in the planning controls that apply in the Yarra Ranges. Amendment 122 does not change any urban growth boundary or change subdivision provisions in the green wedge areas. The changes to the regional strategy plan under amendment 122 were of course publicly exhibited along with amendment C148.

Can I say in conclusion that the council, who have done some really excellent work in this space, can now get on with strategic planning work that helps them absolutely to protect the Yarra Valley and manage growth in appropriate locations. I commend this amendment to the house.

Mr R SMITH (Warrandyte) (10:12): Thank you, Minister. May I just start by expressing my appreciation to the minister and his office for putting the briefing together. It is my experience that the minister’s staff and departmental staff have been unfailingly helpful and polite in their dealings with my office and me, so I thank him and by extension them for that.

I rise today to speak on the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Regional Strategy Plan both in my capacity as the Shadow Minister for Planning but also as someone who has a particular interest in the area, having grown up on Mount Dandenong and gone to school at both Lilydale High and Lilydale Primary School. I know the area well, and I appreciate the work that Yarra Ranges council has done in making sure that they embrace the green wedge in particular. I want to talk a little bit about the green wedges. I want to talk a little bit about bushfire concerns in the area that may be affected by the amendments and also some of the heritage issues.

The green wedge, for those that do not know, was an idea first put forward by the Honourable Rupert Hamer, at the time Liberal Minister for Local Government and obviously a former Premier. But in his role as Minister for Local Government under the Bolte government he introduced these ideas as a way of making sure that there was a process to counter the urban sprawl, and he would later achieve that protection of those particular conservation areas through the introduction of planning overlays known as conservation areas. It has been heartening that successive governments have been true to the ideals put forward by the Liberal government in making sure that those areas have been always preserved.

We have an inference by our opponents at times that the Liberal Party does not care about the environment, and I am here to place on the record that that is absolute rubbish. The green wedge zones were born of liberal ideas, they have been maintained by liberal ideas, and the conservation plans which were made back in the 1970s for our future are something of which I am very proud. The green wedges are a Liberal legacy, and certainly in my time here I will do everything I can to protect the green wedges, whether it be in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, in my own patch in Warrandyte or indeed in other areas around the state, such as the Mornington Peninsula.

May I also just move on to issues around bushfire concerns. While section 70(2) speaks about the clearing of native vegetation, I think we need to be very cognisant while we are saving important vegetation—as a former environment minister I am very cognisant of the need to do that—of the need to preserve those ecological values. But I just want to make note of the fact that, following the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, the government of the day and indeed, I believe, successive governments believed that the primacy of life pretty well covers and is at the forefront of everything that we do when we look at bushfire protection. So when we are thinking about any restraints on native vegetation clearance, we have to make sure that people’s homes and indeed people’s lives are protected at the first instance. I just place on record that the primacy of life is something that should be at the forefront of our mind when we are looking at these sorts of issues.

Finally, just on heritage issues, I saw in the amendment we have some directions removed, one being to:

Ensure that buildings harmonise in character and appearance with adjacent buildings and with the character of the area.

And further that we:

Ensure retention and preservation of architecturally or historically significant buildings and features in each centre.

Those two provisions have been removed by this amendment, and I think that we have to make sure with those provisions being removed that we still maintain the character of the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges, which have a particular character. As I said, I grew up in that area. I am very cognisant of the look, the feel and the ambience of the place, and despite those provisions being removed we still have to be very cognisant of maintaining the character of the area.

With those short words, I support the amendment being moved by the government but at the first instance by Yarra Ranges council. Tammi Rose has done excellent work as CEO of Yarra Ranges council. I am very supportive of what has been put forward but again just place on record those concerns about heritage issues and those concerns around native vegetation clearance, and of course, as I said, I remain, as always, very proud of the Liberal legacy of the green wedges.

Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (10:16): I also rise today in relation to this motion around the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Regional Strategy Plan amendment, otherwise known as amendment 122. Amendment 122 to the regional strategy plan really is a critical step in paving the way for improved investment and community outcomes for my local community in the Yarra Ranges. As the Shadow Minister for Planning and Heritage has just pointed out, it continues to protect our green wedge areas, green wedges having been a forward-thinking environment policy brought to Victoria by a Liberal in the former Hamer ministry in a Liberal government. We will always proudly protect and seek to protect the green wedges here on this side of the house.

I am rising today because as the member for Evelyn—Evelyn is within the Yarra Ranges municipality—I thought it important today to put on record some remarks in relation to this amendment 122 and why it is important for our community. C122 ensures consistency between the planning scheme and the regional strategy plan and enables development in Yarra Ranges to more successfully deliver on the community’s aspirations that were expressed through Vision 2020. It is worth noting, however, that it has been three years since this amendment was submitted to the Minister for Planning seeking endorsement. While it is really good that we are discussing it and debating it in Parliament today, it is worth noting that the delays have really blocked progress on other key planning improvements. It has been sitting on the Andrews Labor government’s desk now for over three years, since 2019, and on behalf of my community—the residents, the businesses and the council—you do have to wonder what on earth the bureaucrats and the minister have been doing for all of that time, because it has caused delays in progress for my community. But that it is now before Parliament is a good thing. In particular the transformative C148 amendment will finally be able to proceed along with C186, and I encourage the Minister for Planning to expedite these as a matter of priority should amendment 122 be ratified. Indeed my community would be grateful to be advised by the minister and his office what the time frame is for C148 and C186 to be expedited.

After being in communication with the Yarra Ranges council in relation to C122, I understand that the community was thoroughly engaged on the proposed changes and that residents and organisations in the community provided input into the development of C148 before the council made this recommendation to the government back in 2019. Progressing C122 will achieve strong benefits for investment in our local community, for businesses and for the community, including: the rewriting of the municipal strategic statement that provides clearer strategic direction and decision-making guidance on a wide range of land use and development issues; the introduction of three new local planning policies for retail developments, environmentally sustainable development and dwellings in green wedge areas; the cleaning up and deletion of eight local planning policies, which will become redundant as a result of new policy guidelines contained within the revised municipal strategic statement and revised overlay schedules; a set of new significant landscape overlays that contain improved design guidelines for development in green wedge areas; a new environmental significance overlay that identifies and celebrates the important biodiversity habitats in the Yarra Ranges, particularly important for our local community, and provides targeted controls to protect these areas; cleaning up through the removal of redundant significant landscape overlay and environmental significance overlay schedules; a 5 per cent public open space contribution requirement through the schedule to clause 53.01 of all land inside the urban growth boundary—and I do note particularly that this C122 amendment will not change the urban growth boundary, which is a really good thing; and further cleaning up through the removal of redundant requirements from the schedule to clause 51.03 of the planning scheme.

As I mentioned earlier and as has been mentioned I think by the minister and the shadow minister, a really important, significant reform back under a Liberal government, under former minister Hamer, was the green wedges. We, the Liberals and The Nationals, will always promote the green wedges. We will always seek to protect the green wedges and the beautiful natural environment and agricultural attributes of the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges area.

I also would like to put on record my thanks to the CEO of the Yarra Ranges council, Tammi Rose, and her team and also the mayor, Cr Jim Child, for their candid discussions about this and how the community was engaged on this process. As a local advocate and representative, as the member for Evelyn, which is contained within the Yarra Ranges municipality, and in support of the residents, the businesses and the council—because of course we know that this will contribute to the investment in our area and make things much clearer when it comes to planning matters in my area—I look forward to amendment 122 proceeding so that our community can move forward.

Motion agreed to.