By Ethan Benedicto
The Planning Scheme Amendment C284 could see some changes to the current Casey Planning Scheme following the most recent council meeting on 19 March.
Amendment C284 proposes to change the Casey Planning Scheme to meet the State Government’s Smart Planning requirements and to implement a significant body of strategic work adopted by the council.
In addition, the amendment also implements recommendations from recent Planning Scheme Reviews and corrects minor anomalies and errors in the scheme.
Furthermore, the changes would improve the current scheme’s usability and efficiency, therefore enabling better land use decisions.
Initially, the amendment was exhibited for over six weeks from 19 October 2023, with submissions closing on 1 December 2023.
In that timeframe, 28 submissions were received which included two late submissions.
Of these submissions, 23 of them requested for changes to be made to the exhibited provisions.
To be more specific, several submitters requested that the amendment include a greater requirement for the planting of canopy trees, in relation to the general theme of the inconsistency between approved Precinct Structure Plans – PSPs – and Framework Plans.
The other most common objection revolved around matters that were beyond the scope of the amendment.
To be precise, several submitters requested changes to the planning scheme such as rezoning of land or the amendment zone (overlay boundaries), changes to the Urban Growth Boundary and the inclusion of new or updated policies that have not been prepared or adopted by the council.
Moving forward, the council has three statutory options in order to address the public submissions.
The first option is to change the amendment to satisfy a submitter or to abandon a part or all of the amendment.
However, the most appropriate course of action discussed in the agenda was to request that the Minister for Planning appoint an independent planning panel in order to consider all of the submissions.
Amendment C284 aims to replace the Municipal Strategic Statement – MSS – and Local Planning Policies in the Casey Planning Scheme with a new Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS).
In addition to correcting the mentioned errors and anomalies, it also introduces new local policies within the Planning Policy Framework or PPF.
Casey Council approved the preparation of Amendment C284 in September 2022, with the Minister of Planning authorising its preparation in May 2023.
If the independent planning panel were to go forth, their report would then be considered at a future council meeting, where the council can decide where to adopt the amendment – with or without changes – or to abandon it.
