Growth area councils have been told to consider capping future growth as the state government reveals that Melton has enough vacant land to accommodate close to 83,000 new houses.
RMIT planning professor Michael Buxton said government plans to locate 40 per cent of Melbourne’s future housing in outer urban areas such as Melton meant councils would need to control the rate at which their communities grew.
He predicted more councils would follow Wyndham’s lead. Its council wants to place a cap of 3000 houses being built annually to ensure infrastructure and services keep pace with development.
Professor Buxton’s comments followed last week’s release of the government’s Urban Development Program report, which revealed the western growth corridor comprising Melton and Wyndham had 177,000 potential housing lots.
The report stated that 82,844 of those lots were in Melton. The government could not provide a time frame for when the 177,000 potential lots would be developed.
Of those lots in Melton, 37,803 were listed as “development ready”, having already been approved as part of precinct structure plans.
Melton council’s planning services manager, Bob Baggio, said the municipality was planning for sustained growth over 20 years. In 2012-13, Melton had the highest number of new houses constructed in the growth areas, with 2688 new houses built.
“The figure of about 38,000 lots is not surprising given that a number of precinct structure plans have been approved for large areas of land at Toolern and Rockbank North,” Mr Baggio said.
“New housing growth is expected to remain high in the next five years.” Mr Baggio didn’t rule out capping growth in the future.
“The council does not have a policy of capping development at this time, but it actively advocates to the state government for the timely provision of major infrastructure such as improved public transport, new schools, upgrading of arterial roads and the like.”
24-year supply of land
An extra 40 houses on average will be built in Moorabool each year between now and 2026. Of the 359 additional properties to be built each year, 278 are predicted to be in Bacchus Marsh, Darley, Maddingley and surrounds.
The state government’s Urban Development Program report, released last week, shows 7082 residential lots available for future development. Another 1149 blocks smaller than one hectare are also available.
The report said there was about 14 years’ supply of zoned residential land stock across the municipality, and an additional 10 years of unzoned land that could be used if demand exceeds predicted growth.
Ballan resident John Kowarsky said new development should be in keeping with Ballan’s natural ambience.
