The City of Whittlesea is seeking to introduce new planning controls to protect environmentally significant areas in the green wedge land to the north of the municipality.
The proposal aims to support biodiversity, protect threatened flora and fauna and provide clarity to landowners about what is permissible development in these environmentally sensitive areas.
Councillors resolved at Tuesday night’s Council Meeting to request authorisation from the Minister for Planning to prepare and exhibit the proposed Planning Scheme Amendment C288wsea.
If the Minister for Planning approves Council’s request to exhibit the proposed amendment, residents will be invited to provide feedback and submissions during a thorough community consultation process.
The proposed amendment is informed by extensive research, with the Biodiversity Asset Mapping Report and the Habitat Connectivity Study identifying areas of high environmental value.
Through this work, several previously unrecorded threatened species, including the brush-tailed phascogales and the common dunnart, as well as the powerful owl and several rare plant species, were discovered in the municipality.
The extent of the environmental protections has been carefully mapped to avoid impacting agricultural land.
To ensure farming operations are supported, the proposed controls exempt certain routine activities, such as fencing, providing they meet specified conditions and minimise the impact to existing ecological values.
Under the proposed amendment, landowners will need to obtain a permit before removing native vegetation or carrying out certain building works, such as erecting large sheds. This is to ensure that any proposed development is designed in a way to not adversely impact on the environmental values of the site.
Importantly, the requirements would not apply retrospectively. Only new developments proposed after the amendment process is complete will be subject to the new provisions.
Affected landowners will be directly notified of the proposal in the future as part of the planned consultation process.
For more information about the proposed amendment, go to engage.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/C288wsea.
Quotes attributable to City of Whittlesea Mayor, Councillor Martin Taylor:
“The City of Whittlesea’s green wedge provides critical habitat for a diverse range of flora and fauna, including a number of threatened species such as the powerful owl,” he said.
“The proposed amendment to the Whittlesea Planning Scheme, in the form of an Environment Significance Overlay, is crucial to ensuring we protect biodiversity and the natural environment within the green wedge.
“This project is in its very early stages. If the minister supports the proposal to exhibit the amendment, affected landowners will be contacted to provide their feedback, which will inform the proposal as it progresses through the formal amendment process.”