Amendment C230 to the Whittlesea Planning Scheme - 25 Vearings Road, Epping

Amendment C230 makes changes to the Whittlesea Planning Scheme to facilitate the rezoning of land at 25 Vearings Road, Epping for employment (industrial) purposes.

What area does the Amendment apply to?

The Amendment applies to land at 25 Vearings Road, Epping as shown on the map below. The Amendment does not propose changes to the surrounding residential, industrial or rural conservation properties.

What changes are proposed?

The Amendment rezones approximately 140 hectares of land to facilitate the future redevelopment of the site for employment purposes as part of the broader Cooper Street

Employment Area and expedites the transfer of land within the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

Specifically, the Amendment:

Rezones part of the land outside of Biodiversity Conservation Area 33 from a Rural Conservation Zone (RCZ) to an Industrial 1 Zone (INZ1);
Deletes the Environmental Significance Overlay (ESO4) from the site;
Applies the Vegetation Protection Overlay (VPO1) to the land rezoned INZ1;
Applies a Development Plan Overlay Schedule 38 (DPO38) to the land rezoned INZ1; and
Applies an Environmental Significance Overlay (ESO6) to land within Biodiversity Conservation Area 33.

Minor administrative revisions were made to the Development Plan Overlay Schedule (DPO38) to align with the Ministerial Direction on the Form and Content of Planning Schemes.

Public exhibition

Amendment C230 was exhibited from 10 January – 22 February 2019.

The closing date for submissions was 22 February 2019.

Panel Hearing

As a result of submissions received to the Amendment, Council resolved at its meeting on 1 October 2019 to request the appointment of an Independent Planning Panel.

The Panel Hearing was conducted at Council Offices on 18 and 19 December 2019.

The Panel provided its formal recommendation on the Amendment and submissions on 23 January 2020 to Council.