City Underlines Affordable Housing on Vic Plan Wish List

Treaty and affordable housing are at the heart of the City of Melbourne’s preliminary submission to the Victorian Government’s future roadmap.

The Plan for Victoria will set out how the state will develop over the next few decades. 

Consultation is under way on four pillars—affordable housing and choices, equity and jobs, liveable suburbs and towns and sustainable environments and climate action.

This phase of consultation began in November and will end on June 30, 2024 ahead of the final plan release before the end this year.

The City, however, is not over impressed.

“The Victorian Government has missed the opportunity to articulate a vision for metropolitan Melbourne,” City of Melbourne deputy lord mayor Nicholas Reece said.

“It has been the case since Federation that governments across Australia have talked about the development of the regions and sending people to the bush. 

“But the consistent story for the past 100 years has been that the exact opposite effect occurs with the likes of the big city.

“We want to be part of this process ... so we seek the opportunity as part of the recommended motion that the Lord Mayor write to the planning minister, putting in our preliminary submission and requesting a commitment to further public consultation as part of the draft plan.” 

The City of Melbourne also suggested two further pillars for the plan: transport and movement infrastructure, and water protection and appreciation.

Self-determination and treaty was a key part of the City’s submission, noting that it should be embedded in the planning processes for the capital and the state.

The City’s submission also noted that affordable housing should be considered as essential infrastructure and be delivered through a mandatory and consistent framework set up in the planning system with new public open space alongside increased density. 

It also called for more mixed-use projects to be facilitated as well as to frame and support Melbourne as the best place to do business and to grow as a global hub of innovation, knowledge and creativity. 

▲ An aerial view of one of Melbourne’s potential affordable housing sites, 44-60 Curzon Street at North Melbourne.

Maintaining high environmental standards for new and retrofitted buildings and infrastructure alongside green infrastructure projects was also included in the submission to ensure the city responds and adapts to the climate crisis.

Expanding and optimising the existing transport network was seen as essential to the city’s economic growth, housing development, access to jobs and better neighbourhoods and urban renewal precincts.

“You’ve got to have a plan for Melbourne in order to understand how to spend any funds on any infrastructure project and infrastructure of course is only just one issue,” Cr Rohan Leppert said.

“The lack of integrated transport on the planning side of things has been a bugbear for councils trying to plan transport for a couple of decades now.

“It is time that the State realises that it is making a spectacular mistake not generating a serious plan for the metropolis for the third time without which we will not have a plan for its center.”  

Water management to address sea level rise and flooding risks and compact cities and the support and creation of cultural jobs and events were also included. 

The submission also mentioned the Metro Rail Project, the Melbourne Arts Precinct, the Queen Victoria Market Precinct, the Greenline Precinct, the Arden Precinct and the Fishermans Bend Precinct. 

Integrating a comprehensive plan for the city within the bigger Plan for Victoria was also seen as key. 

The Future Melbourne Committee voted to advise the Victorian planning minister of the preliminary submission and request a commitment to more public consultation on the draft Plan for Victoria.