The abundance of land suitable for residential development around outer Melbourne has historically been both a blessing and a curse. The metropolitan Melbourne footprint has been able to expand to such an extent that it now accommodates a population of over 5 million however most housing stock consists of single dwellings and a car trip from one end of the city to the other takes up to 2 hours. Decades of reporting show that those living in the outer suburbs are often at a significant economic disadvantage with inadequate access to public transport, jobs and services.

To assist with curbing the trend, the state government has developed new housing targets for 2.24 million new homes by 2051 and every local government area will have population targets with increases based on access to jobs, services and public transport.

One of the strategies to create more housing in the well serviced middle ring suburbs is to rezone and sell surplus government land.  These plans are a practical way to help limit Melbourne’s expanding footprint and we are excited to see what opportunities arise. We note however that there are likely to be quite complex planning and design challenges that go with the development of many of these sites. Boroondara Council for instance is set to accommodate 67,000 more homes by 2051 and to contribute, proposed Amendment C411boro would rezone a 5,000 square metre area used for vehicle access and car parking at the VicRoads headquarters in Kew (shown in pink on the aerial above) from a Transport Zone to a Residential Zone and the land would be sold to developers.

Development of the VicRoads land will need to work with an 18 metre wide strip of land and the design will need to accommodate large trees on one side and be sensitive to adjoining small rear yards of dwellings on the other. Balancing these design challenges along with the costs of construction on a constrained site may make affordability of the end product a challenge.

Submissions are open on the housing targets and for the Boroondara rezoning proposal: go to engage.vic.gov.au for your say.