Policies & strategies

Learn more about our Street and Roadside Trading Policy by downloading the document.

Provide a clear framework to guide future strategic activities by Council, community and others in managing our precious environment.

Framework to ensure consistency and control over procurement activities, to demonstrate accountability to rate payers and to provide guidance on ethical behaviour in local government procurement.

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
  
  

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.

The Local Government Act 2020 introduced strategic planning principles for Victorian councils which include an integrated approach to planning, monitoring and performance reporting.

Yarra Ranges Council is producing this Workforce Plan to examine the current state of our organisation and to detail any planned changes so that we can project what our organisation may look like in the next four years.

The Workforce Plan will be an evolving document and will be updated periodically to reflect the current and projected states of the Yarra Ranges Workforce.

The Nature Plan was endorsed at the Council meeting in December 2023.

 

The Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Authority

The Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Authority was established with the proclamation, in April 1977, of the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Authority Act 1976 (the Act). The authority was responsible for the region comprising the former shires of Healesville, Lilydale, Sherbrooke and Upper Yarra. With the local government restructure in December 1994, the Regional Strategy Plan is now within the municipal area of the Yarra Ranges Shire Council.

The object of the Act was ‘to enable increased protection for the special features and character of the region’. The Act also required that the authority prepare Regional Strategy Plan to implement, among other things, state planning policies for the region.

The authority was wound up in 1995 under the Planning Authorities Repeal Act 1994. Since the disbandment of the authority, the Regional Strategy Plan has been the responsibility of the Minister for Planning.

The Act requires that any amendment to a planning scheme within the area of a Regional Strategy Plan must be consistent with the Regional Strategy Plan.

View The Upper Yarra and Dandenong Ranges Regional Strategy Plan 122

 

We value our customers and are known for delivering great customer experiences.

Yarra Ranges Council is transforming the way we think, work and deliver. Through our Flexible Future Transformation Strategy we are working towards creating a high performing organisation that collaborates and innovates to deliver exceptional customer focused services.

This Customer Experience Strategy plays a significant role in our ability to meet this aspiration, through guiding our efforts to improve our customers’ experiences with Council. 

What is Customer Experience?

Customer Experience (CX) is the sum of all the interactions that a customer has with Council and the customer’s feelings, emotions, and perceptions of Council over the course of those interactions. 

Our goals

1. We understand our customers, their needs and what they value
2. Customer experience is central in the design of our services and processes
3. We make it easier for customers to connect with us, access services and complete their business
4. Our people value customers, are empathetic and responsive, and accountable for delivering positive customer experience
5. We measure customer experience and use data, feedback and insights to continually improve our services

Priority projects 

• Website Redevelopment 
  Redeveloping the website to ensure it is customer centric, user friendly and accessible, allowing our customers to easily find information and access Council services.

• SMS Updates
  Implementing SMS messages to update customers on a range of council services

• Customer Process Project
  Re-designing the organisation’s customer request processes to improve customer experience and satisfaction. The project will see the creation a standardised and more efficient approach to the management of the many customer request types and increase accountability, measurement and performance of customer request processes.

How will we keep this up to date?

We will regularly review the progress and outcomes of this strategy to assess how we are tracking. 

It is a living document and will be adjusted to ensure is remains contemporary and achieves our vision.

 

Yarra Ranges Council has developed the Integrated Water Management Plan to set the strategic direction for the sustainable management of water resources for Council operations over the next 5 years.

Council delegates some powers, duties and functions to Officers via these Instruments of Delegation:

• Council to Staff
• Council to CEO
• CEO to Staff
• VicSmart
• Municipal Building Surveyor

Council delegates some powers, duties and functions to Council officers to effectively and efficiently carry out its business.  This is formalised through a written Instrument of Delegation.

The Local Government (General) Regulations 2015 requires Council to make available a register of delegations, including the dates on which the last reviews took place.    

The following delegations have been made by Council under section 11(1) of the Local Government Act 2020 and specific powers of delegation conferred on Council by other Acts. This Register is kept under section 11(8) of the Local Government Act 2020:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S5	Instrument of Delegation from Council to the Chief Executive Officer(PDF, 145KB)	11/10/23
S6	Instrument of Delegation from Council to Staff(PDF, 4MB)	19/09/24
S18	Instrument of Sub-Delegation under the Environment Protection Act 2017 to Members of Council Staff(PDF, 245KB)	21/09/21
C4	Instrument of Delegation from Council to the Hearing of Submissions Committee(PDF, 173KB)	20/04/21

 

The following delegations have been made by the Chief Executive Officer under section 47(2) of the Act and this Register is kept under section 47(7) of the Act:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S7	Instrument of Sub-Delegation from the Chief Executive Officer to Staff(PDF, 2MB)	10/05/23
S14	Instrument of Delegation from Chief Executive Officer to Staff(PDF, 415KB)	10/05/23
S16	Instrument of Delegation for Bushfire Reconstruction Applications under the Planning and Environment Act 1987(PDF, 250KB)	04/10/21
	Instrument of Sub-Delegation from the Chief Executive Officer (Neighbourhood Amenity Local Law)(PDF, 316KB)	14/09/20

 

The following delegations have been made by the Municipal Building Surveyor under section 216B of the Building Act 1993:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S12	Instrument of Delegation from the Municipal Building Surveyor(PDF, 2MB)	September 2024