Green Wedge Management Plans
Purpose
The purpose of this project is to guide the development of Green Wedge Management Plans for Melbourne's twelve green wedges. The Plans will fulfil statutory, strategic, environmental, economic and social requirements necessary to manage the use and development of Melbourne’s green wedges.Status Report
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Selected Councils have received Targeted Grants (through the Local Government Assistance Fund) which they are using to develop Green Wedge Management Plans (including Wyndham, Melton, Hume and Nillumbik).
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A General Practice Note has been prepared to guide the development of Green Wedge Management Plans, and is available on the DPCD Planning website (see Project Outputs).
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A background document - ‘Principles, Issues and Guidelines for the preparation of Green Wedge Management Plans’ - has been prepared which may be of assistance to councils who are involved in preparing Green Wedge Management Plans. The document has been compiled from information prepared, with input from councils and interested parties, by Research Planning Design Group, consultants for DPCD, and has no formal status. It was used to inform the recently published General Practice Note on preparing a Green Wedge Management Plan (see Project Outputs).
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A DPCD Project Team has been established to assist Councils with Plan preparation.
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A Technical Reference Group has been established by DPCD to support Councils in the preparation of Green Wedge Management Plans. This group includes representatives from Department of Primary Industries, Department of Planning and Community Development, Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria and the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority.
Project Priority
This project is delivering on the following priority initiatives included in the Melbourne 2030 five year Implementation Program:-
Initiative 2.4.1 - Implement new planning scheme provisions to secure the protection of metropolitan green wedges in the planning system
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Initiative 2.4.2 - Work with local councils to support the consolidation of new residential development into existing settlements in the green wedges, where planned services are available and relevant values can be protected
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Initiative 2.4.3 - Amend planning schemes affecting green wedges to ensure that recreation-type developments, such as golf courses with associated housing development, are only approved where they support Melbourne 2030 and local settlement policies
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Initiative 2.4.4 - Legislate to provide protection for areas of high environmental and scenic value in metropolitan green wedges such as Nillumbik, the Dandenong Ranges, the Yarra Valley, Westernport and the Mornington Peninsula
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Initiative 4.1.1 - Update the mapping of current and potentially productive land resources in the region
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Initiative 4.1.2 - Identify and safeguard strategic deposits of sand, mineral and stone, to maintain their potential for exploitation, including provision for buffer areas
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Initiative 4.1.3 - Protect the identified areas for potential supply of recycled water for forestry, agriculture or other uses that can use treated effluent of an appropriate quality
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Initiative 4.1.4 - Increase protection for natural resource-based industries, industrial land and energy infrastructure against competing and incompatible uses
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Initiative 4.1.5 - Set aside suitable land, protected by appropriate buffers, for future energy infrastructure
Project Outcomes
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Detailed description of the values of each of Melbourne’s 12 green wedges, and identification of actions needed to protect those values.
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Plans leading to improved management of green wedges, to support, enhance and protect the landscape, environmental, tourism, natural resource, infrastructure and agricultural values of the land.
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Clear direction for the appropriate use and development of green wedges on Melbourne’s urban fringe.
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Improved management techniques and planning tools for sustainable land use in green wedges.
Project Outputs
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General Practice Note - Preparing a Green Wedge Management Plan (August 2005).
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Background document Green Wedge Management Plan Guidelines 2005 (PDF - 336 Kb)
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Draft plans for each of the 12 Green Wedges (prepared by Councils with assistance from the DPCD Project Team).