Warrnambool Planning Scheme Rewrite Project

The vision of the Warrnambool Planning Scheme Rewrite Project is to create a planning scheme that is streamlined, contemporary and reflects best practice industry standards. The project has outlined issues and identified policy gaps that needed to be addressed in the Warrnambool Planning Scheme, either through its Local Planning Policy Framework (LPPF), or by the implementation of adopted strategies.

An important objective of the Planning Scheme Rewrite Project is to restructure the LPPF to provide a clear connection to the themes and policies in the State Planning Policy Framework (SPPF).

Council is seeking feedback on the issues discussed in its Interim Report (available above), to ensure that all issues are identified, prior to moving towards the next step in this process which is to complete the final report, including a draft revised Municipal Strategic Statement and Local Planning Policies (if required).

The Planning Scheme Rewrite Project will be completed once the Minister for Planning has released the advisory committee’s report. Once the project is complete an amendment to the Warrnambool Planning Scheme will be prepared to implement the recommendations of the final report.

This interim report recommends that the Municipal Strategic Statement (MSS) be reformatted in accordance within the current SPPF structure. All existing Local Planning Policies are recommended to be deleted and where relevant, objectives and strategies will be incorporated within the new Municipal Strategic Statement (proposed Clause 21.01 - 21.11).

Four (4) polices are proposed to be included, a policy to guide the assessment an application for signage across the municipality (i.e. commercial signage, advertising signage etc.), a policy to guide the assessment of an application for a front fence in residential areas, a policy to guide the assessment of an application for gaming machines (subject to review of the Gaming Policy 2011) and a policy to guide the assessment of an application for the excision of a within the Farming Zone (see Figure 1 on the following page for a diagram of the existing and proposed MSS and LPPF structure).

Council is keen to receive feedback on areas where it can improve the performance of the planning scheme.

Key questions that Council would like feedback on include:

• Are there errors or omissions in the Warrnambool Planning Scheme Rewrite Project interim report?
• Are you aware of any policy gaps in the current Warrnambool Planning Scheme? (i.e. housing affordability, protection of environmental assets, transport etc.?)

You can have your say in a number of ways:

Email

smyers [at] warrnambool [dot] vic [dot] gov [dot] au

Mail

Warrnambool City Council

PO Box 198

Warrnambool, Victoria 3280