More on the New Residential Zones

Boroondara Council has lodged its zoning proposals
with the Minister for approval but, in the meantime the development industry has been very active in lobbying against the new zones screaming that they will be locked out of the residential suburbs.

In the case of Boroondara's proposal they are right, for our council has identified about 70-80% of Boroondara as Neighbourhood Residential Zone and the rest as General Residential Zone with a small section as Residential Growth Zone(partly as a result of our lobbying and the fact that most of Boroondara is residential).

However, other councils' planners with their tunnel vision, which is to push for more and more development, have reacted quite differently. Many councils are proposing to have more of their residential areas identified as either General or Growth Zones with not too much in the more protected Neighbourhood Zone.

For instance, in the Greater Geelong area the council is proposing to have hardly any residential areas in the Neighbourhood Zone. This is very much against the Minister's idea of trying to protect our residential areas from rapacious and unacceptable development. One area, which contains mostly lovely old Edwardian homes, is identified for growth. This is pure vandalism. And Greater Geelong is not the only one for many more councils are trending in the same direction. 

It seems that the development lobby is gaining ground because money talks. Check out what Charter Keck Cramer have to say on the subject (see attached above). 
We wonder just how this will all pan out.

We will keep you posted.