Macedon Ranges council is determined to protect the shire’s character “from inappropriate development”.
The council is calling on the state government to come up with a new set of planning guidelines specifically for non-metropolitan areas.
At a meeting last week, Cr Helen Radnedge said the specific guidelines were necessary “to protect the cultural heritage and built form character” of areas such as the Macedon Ranges.
The council will ask Planning Minister Richard Wynne to look at its request for changes and to grant an interim two-storey height limit for new buildings approved in the shire in the next two years.
Under changes to the Victoria Planning Provisions introduced in March, residential buildings in general residential zones can be up to three-storeys and 11 metres high. Previously they were restricted to two-storeys and nine metres.
Cr Radnedge said the changes were “resulting in homogenous housing types better suited to metropolitan growth areas” and failed “to account for rural styles, character and circumstances”.
Mayor Jennifer Anderson agreed the new state planning guidelines did not take into account the differences between the Macedon Ranges and Melbourne.
“They don’t get that we’re different to Melbourne,” Cr Anderson said. “Rural living is different to metro.
“We are going to VCAT [Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal] more and more often with our community and councillors having a different interpretation of neighbourhood character.”
The council last month rejected for a second time plans for what would have been the first apartment building in Gisborne.
The council denied the permit, against the recommendation of council officers. The applicant had taken the case to VCAT and been referred back to the council.
At the time, Cr Radnedge said apartments were “out of character for the whole region”.
The council’s move to request a new set of planning controls for rural areas was widely supported.
But Cr Henry Bleeck spoke against the motion, saying the community needed to keep moving forward.
“Diversity is what we need – it actually makes the shire,” he said.
“It’s important we go down that track rather than stopping everything.”
The motion was passed 7-2.
