Implementation plans > Growth areas > What are growth areas, and where are they?

What are growth areas, and where are they?
Growth areas are areas on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne that have been designated for urban use. They are on and around major regional transport corridors. Already prominent in planning for metropolitan Melbourne and already accommodating many tens of thousands of people, they will be extended to house and serve new communities of the future.

This draft Implementation Plan applies to the growth areas in the municipalities of Wyndham, Hume, Whittlesea, Casey and Cardinia.

The plan also applies to Melton. It addresses the need to review the area between Melton township and Caroline Springs in order to assess the long-term feasibility of developing the Caroline Springs growth area along the rail and road corridor.

Figure 1. Managing urban growth - click for more detail

What are the main issues that affect growth areas?

Population forecasts indicate that, in the next 30 years, Melbourne will grow by 925,000 people. A significant challenge for Melbourne 2030 is providing for more people and different households, in a range of well-located affordable housing types and forms, in better planned neighbourhoods, near infrastructure. Infrastructure in new developments should be provided in a carefully managed sequence for reasons of efficiency, and to meet the changing needs of the population.

The pressure for continued urban expansion will be reduced as Melbourne 2030 encourages a greater proportion of housing at strategic redevelopment sites in established areas. It will also put greater emphasis on preserving green wedges.

While the growth areas will continue to play a major role in metropolitan development, the challenge will be to adopt a more systematic and compact approach to urban growth. To achieve a more sustainable urban form, new communities and neighbourhoods will need to be more closely aligned to existing and planned physical infrastructure and social and community services.

While State and local governments have already undertaken significant work to address planning issues in growth areas, recent years have seen less emphasis on metropolitan-wide issues, and inconsistency in the application of planning policies, management measures, priorities and resource allocation. To date, planning in growth areas has been based on assumptions that should now be reviewed in the light of the directions emerging from Melbourne 2030.

The issues likely to affect growth areas are discussed below.

Population trends
As metropolitan Melbourne’s population increases, by 2030 the average household size in Victoria will fall from 2.6 to 2.25 persons.

Taken together, an increasing population and declining household size will generate demand for an additional 620,000 households in Melbourne. The growth rate of households will be almost twice the rate of population increase.

In the past 30 years, Victoria has experienced a large increase in the young adult population (people born between the late 1940s and the mid-1970s), which has fuelled market demand for conventional suburban family homes. In future, however, there will be no significant increase in the numbers of young adults entering the housing market. By far the greatest population increase will be in the 55–85 year age group, comprising couples without children, particularly ‘empty nesters’ (parents whose children have left home) and single people.

Young adults move three or four times more often than retired people. As our population ages, overall we can expect a lower propensity for people to move house.

Most moves are short-distance, frequently within the same suburb. When people move further afield, usually they stay in the same sector of the city. However, movement over time between inner, middle and outer suburbs is not uncommon. On leaving home, many young adults head inwards towards the city, but as they form partnerships and start families, many have tended to move outwards in search of cheaper housing and more space.

Despite changes in society and individual demand, the balance of movement in Melbourne is still outwards. But patterns are changing. Not only young people are attracted to new areas, for instance, between 1996 and 2001, the City of Casey attracted more empty nesters than did the inner suburbs. Also, the population make-up of inner-city areas is altering. Here growth is driven not only by movements inwards of young people – from outer suburbs, from regional Victoria, interstate and overseas – but by their propensity to stay put. Fewer people aged over 25 are leaving the inner suburbs. As more choose not to partner or start families, part of the underlying rationale for moving out has gone.

Dwelling supply
Currently, 38 per cent of all Melbourne’s new dwelling approvals occur on greenfield sites – undeveloped land identified for residential development, generally on the metropolitan fringe. Through the phased introduction of measures to support a more compact form of development, there is potential to increase the future supply and range of housing options in growth areas. However, the ability to achieve a substantial increase in dwelling supply will require major changes to the design, development and phasing of greenfield sites in the growth areas.

Between 2001 and 2030, it is anticipated that, on average, 31 per cent of the 620,000 new households in metropolitan Melbourne will be constructed in greenfield locations. By 2030, this development is anticipated to account for 22 per cent of all new households.

Figure 2. Compact city - click for more detail

A range of housing types
Providing a range of well-located housing types and forms is fundamental to achieving many of the aims of Melbourne 2030.

Detached housing is the dominant form of housing on Melbourne’s fringe. In 2001–02 detached dwellings accounted for 63 per cent of all new dwelling approvals in Melbourne. In 1996, 92 per cent of couples with children, 80 per cent of couples without children and 50 per cent of single-person households chose to live in detached dwellings. Most of the recent gradual increase in the supply of higher and medium-density housing in Melbourne has been confined to the inner and middle suburbs.

In growth areas, housing estates largely comprise detached dwellings. The relatively cheaper land cost component makes this an affordable and comfortable housing option for many families with children. However there is some evidence that this pattern is beginning to change – around 25 per cent of Urban and Regional Land Corporation (URLC) sales in greenfield developments now go to people other than first-home buyers. Market demand is also encouraging the URLC to increase the medium-density component in its estates.

In future, the projected increase in one and two-person households, an ageing population and greater ethnic diversity will create demand for a greater range of housing choice in Melbourne’s growth areas. Buyers will seek well-designed and well-located units, apartments and town houses.

There will also be increased demand for dwellings that cater for flexible living and working arrangements, such as shared accommodation, home offices and shop tops, as well as dwellings that can be easily adapted to suit changes in family life cycles.

Housing affordability
A challenge across metropolitan Melbourne is to ensure the provision of a range of well-located and affordable housing options. This will affect growth areas and established suburbs. It is discussed in draft Implementation Plan 3, Housing.

Better neighbourhood planning
While there are examples of residential estates in growth areas that function as integrated and interconnected communities, a significant number of people living in growth areas have limited access to the public transport network and other services, and limited opportunity to travel cross-town or further afield by public transport. This hinders community spirit and has led to a pattern of increased car dependency.

A further challenge outlined in Melbourne 2030 is the development of new design standards, based on the Neighbourhood Principles (see Appendix 3) that will help create communities rather than subdivisions.

Managing the sequence of development
In growth areas, it can happen that some physical and social infrastructure lags behind the arrival of new communities, and that development is fragmented, occurring over a large number of development fronts. New residential estates on the metropolitan fringe are commonly developed without full public transport and social and community services. Parks, local roads, water, sewerage, maternal and child care are provided at the time of subdivision, but services such as public transport, schools, arterial roads, and emergency services facilities may be missing initially.

Fragmented development of land without accompanying physical and social infrastructure can lead to substandard results and additional financial, environmental and social costs to local councils, the Government and the community, as service providers try to keep up with demands on multiple development fronts. Physical infrastructure providers may be required to invest in new capacity before time. Budget constraints may force new residents to wait for services to be extended.

These problems can lead to short-term reactive planning by government and infrastructure agencies, which is at odds with the need to create more liveable and sustainable communities.

What are the aims of this plan?

Through Melbourne 2030 and the preparation of Growth Area Plans, we will address these broad aims:

• direct development to growth areas that can be provided with public transport and other local and regional infrastructure in coordination with the preferred sequence of land release and development
• reduce the overall proportion of new dwellings in greenfield sites from the current figure of 38 per cent to 22 per cent by 2030
• maintain 15 years supply of broad hectare land zoned for residential purposes in growth areas, to limit upward pressure on prices
• establish a five-year cycle for development sequencing in growth areas, up to a threshold of 15 years
• achieve a gradual but significant increase in housing densities in growth areas, from the current average of 10 dwellings per hectare to around 15 dwellings per hectare, with the highest densities located in or close to activity centres and the Principal Public Transport Network (PPTN)
• increase the choice of housing types provided, to meet the needs of all groups in the community
• create a network of mixed-use activity centres focused on the PPTN
• direct a substantial proportion of new development to activity centres that have good access to the PPTN
• increase the availability of sustainable forms of travel, with more use of public transport and more opportunities for walking and cycling
• develop an urban form based on the Neighbourhood Principles (see Appendix 3)
• structure urban areas to provide interconnected neighbourhoods that are clustered to support Principal or Major Activity Centres
• introduce community safety design principles in order to reduce opportunities for crime, improve perceptions of safety and increase levels of community involvement
• provide opportunities for growth in local employment
• inside the UGB, restrict rural residential development that would compromise future development at higher densities
• protect and manage natural resources and areas of heritage, cultural and environmental significance, and achieve significant savings in energy and water consumption.

Appendix 1 outlines the accompanying policies and principles to be considered.

Figure 3. Sustainable urban structure planning in growth areas - click for more detail

What will it alter?

The implementation of Melbourne 2030 will immediately introduce a number of changes to strategic planning policy in the growth areas.

The immediate application of the interim urban growth boundary (UGB) will ensure consistency and avoid speculation. The UGB appears on maps forming part of affected planning schemes, and the Werribee and South-Eastern (Cranbourne–Pakenham) Growth Area Plans have been amended to reflect it. Submissions may be made about its location during the consultation period, after which the Minister for Planning will make a determination on its final location. After this, modifications will be considered only in designated growth areas, following an assessment of housing needs and the preparation or review of Growth Area Plans. There is a need to ensure adequate land supply is available, and that no artificial pressure will be placed on land pricing, in this regard the UGB will be periodically reviewed in the growth areas to ensure adequate land supply is maintained.

The introduction of the UGB indicates the long-term limits of urban development and where non-urban values and land uses should prevail. In designated growth areas, the interim UGB has been based on areas currently zoned or committed for urban development. It excludes some land previously designated for future urban development in strategic plans prepared by councils in Werribee (north, west and south), Hume (west and north) and a small area to the west of Cranbourne. The land in Werribee, Cranbourne and Hume has been excluded pending a strategic review of the growth areas, primarily owing to the need to re-examine how development should proceed in areas that lack access to high-capacity regional public transport services. The land in Melton has been excluded pending a strategic review of the growth area.

Changes to the UGB are subject to Ministerial Direction No. 10, which includes the processes, tests and criteria to be used for modifying the UGB in growth areas. The Direction includes a requirement that a planning authority must seek the views of the Minister for Planning before preparing an amendment (see draft Implementation Plan 1, Urban Growth Boundary).

Melbourne 2030 specifies the need to concentrate urban expansion into growth areas that are served by existing or planned high-capacity public transport, but at lower rates of development than have occurred in the past. New development will be encouraged in areas that are best able to cope with change while meeting the aims of Melbourne 2030. As the land supply diminishes in metropolitan Melbourne’s south-east, there will need to be higher rates of growth in the west and north.

Future need for additional land in growth areas will depend on development trends, the impact of Melbourne 2030 on shaping the overall distribution of new housing, and the new emphasis on maximising existing settlement patterns, investment and infrastructure.

The Department of Infrastructure (DOI) recognises the importance of keeping land supply under continuing review. New urban development in growth areas will be better managed by identifying an appropriate pattern for future development, and appropriate staging of land release and development sequencing.

In the next five years, DOI will work closely with local government and key stakeholders to complete a new Growth Area Plan for the Hume growth area, and to review existing Growth Area Plans for Werribee, Plenty Valley and the South-Eastern (Cranbourne–Pakenham) Growth Areas. DOI will also work closely with Melton Shire Council to investigate the long-term feasibility of developing the Caroline Springs growth area.

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