Yarra City Council welcomes approval of the changes to Yarra’s Planning Scheme

Yarra City Council

Yarra City Council welcomes the Planning Minister’s approval of the local planning policies to the Yarra’s Planning Scheme.

Local planning policies in a planning scheme provide general guidance and strategies for how land can be used in Yarra and where levels of change and development could occur.

Amendment C269 manages local growth and change by:

• protecting residential neighbourhood heritage areas by guiding development to specific areas (called activity centres, like Swan Street or Smith Street)

• providing better general guidance for new developments

• providing clear strategies to avoid inappropriate highrise development.

As more people choose to call Yarra home, housing growth also needs to be planned and managed in a way that maintains amenity and liveability.

Yarra’s Housing Strategy, which was adopted in 2018, includes housing change areas to differentiate between those that have the capacity to accommodate minimal, incremental, moderate, and high change housing growth.

The housing change areas are based on:

• types of development allowed in each zone

• access to services, public transport, employment and activity centres

• land constraints, lot size, development activity and emerging character

• community feedback.

Yarra City Council Mayor Cr Edward Crossland said the approval of Amendment C269yara is a significant step towards the future of Yarra.

“Eight years ago, we began our review of Yarra’s Planning Scheme. Now, we have a clear and fit-for-purpose planning scheme tailored to our community,” he said.

“The City of Yarra is changing. We need robust planning controls for our growing city that help us address housing capacity, guide new development and protect Yarra’s unique heritage and character to meet the needs of our community,” Mayor Crossland said.

For more on Amendment C269yara: Yarra Planning Scheme Amendment C269 | Yarra Planning Scheme Amendment C269

/Public Release. View in full here.