Housing Strategy

After extensive community consultation, the Yarra Ranges Housing Strategy, and Neighbourhood Character Study, were Adopted by Council at the Council Meeting of 11 June 2024. The Agenda and Minutes from the Meeting are linked below.

The Housing Strategy is Council’s long-term plan to manage future housing growth and change so that it best meets the ongoing needs of the community.  The Housing Strategy identifies the location for new residential development at varying scales. The Housing Strategy underpins Council’s housing policy in the Planning Scheme and provides for the next fifteen years of population growth.

The Neighbourhood Character Study (NCS) was developed and publicly exhibited concurrently with the Housing Strategy. The NCS expresses how new development can be managed across suburban areas of Yarra Ranges to protect valued neighbourhood assets and character.

The development of the Housing Strategy included two stages of community consultation:

  • Stage 1: The Housing Strategy Discussion Paper – exhibited from 1 March 2022 to 5 April 2022
  • Stage 2: The Draft Housing Strategy – exhibited from 25 October 2023 to 11 December 2023

Highlights from Stage 2:

  • Receiving over 5,200 views on Shaping Yarra Ranges.
  • 40 detailed submissions sharing your feedback on chapters in the strategy.
  • Engaging with over 500 community members at events, pop ups, webinars and focus groups around Yarra Ranges.
  • Speaking to identified stakeholder groups including: Monbulk and District Community Opportunities Workgroup, Yarra Ranges Township Network, Council’s Health and Wellbeing Advisory Committee, Council’s Positive Ageing Reference Group, and students from Mooroolbark College. 

Next steps:

Council will now prepare a planning scheme amendment to implement the Housing Strategy, which will be presented to Council in early 2025 to formally commence the planning scheme amendment process. This is expected to be finalised in late 2025 with a new a new planning framework introduced into the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

In addition, there are a number of actions of the Housing Strategy which will be implemented across different departments of Council. 

Linked in the attachments below, these two reports explain the Stage 2 consultation in detail:

  • Draft Housing Strategy Consultation and Engagement Report
  • Draft Housing Strategy Engagement Feedback Report

The reports include feedback from the community and responses from officers regarding the issues raised.

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