Abstract
Baw Baw Shire is located on the eastern edge of Metropolitan and serves as a gateway into the Latrobe Valley and the Gippsland region. The municipality is experiencing rapid residential growth with a 2.59 percent annual growth rate between 2011 and 2016, or an increase of 5,907 people. The municipality occupies some of the State’s most valuable agricultural land that has traditionally been used for dairying and broadacre cropping and pasture. Its proximity to Mount Baw Baw and metropolitan Melbourne makes it an ideal location for tourism ventures and in addition its undulating landscaping, scenic views, and lush forest areas make it a desirable lifestyle location for future residents. The rural landscape features add residential value to many of the rural localities within the municipality, with this resulting in an increased number of individuals choosing to move for lifestyle reasons. This is particularly felt around the main centres, along the Gippsland rail corridor and in higher amenity areas to the north toward Neerim Junction. However, it is only in the western portions of the Shire in towns such as Longwarry that ‘commuter’ development appears particularly prevalent. Much has been written about the pressures for rural dwellings in peri-urban areas but in the context of Baw Baw pressure for rural residential development in the Shire comes not just from metropolitan Melbourne but also from existing residents choosing to move to rural areas from urban centres within the Shire. As part of a broader suite of strategic planning, Baw Baw Shire Council has undertaken a review of the Shire’s rural areas development and Council’s policy. The projec focuses on the following issues: Analysis and comparison of current rural policy with other peri-urban Councils, Current demand for lifestyle dwelling, comparison of vacant land price and a similar land with a dwelling and the focus shifting to get a dwelling permit on vacant farmland to build a lifestyle dwelling. In a nutshell, the project seeks to put in place a strategic framework and associated guidelines for decision-makers, to ensure that decisions in Baw Baw’s rural areas are undertaken on the basis of a strategically justified vision for how the land will evolve, in keeping with the objectives for planning in Victoria. The project is not just looking at rural planning at a high level but delving into details of where and when Council should be approving different sorts of development and decision making and what actions the Council needs to take to best position the municipality to meet the challenges, and make the most of the opportunities likely to arise in the coming decades.
