The Teesdale Structure Plan (TSP) and Planning Scheme Amendment C92gpla returned to Council at its March Council Meeting on Tuesday 23 March.
The TSP is a strategic planning document that will guide the future growth of Teesdale. Initial engagement was undertaken in late 2019, and the Draft TSP was endorsed by Council in April 2020. As part of the final process to incorporate the TSP into the Planning Scheme, the TSP and Amendment C92gpla were on public exhibition from 25 November 2020 to 25 January 2021. During this period, Council received 23 submissions from community members, developers and agencies, expressing diverse views on the content of the TSP and Amendment C92gpla.
Based on this feedback, Council authorised a number of minor changes to be made to the planning documents at the March meeting, including:
- Removing the depiction of paths from the TSP Strategic Framework Plan;
- Recognising the importance of preserving agricultural land in decisions to rezone land;
- Explicitly recognise a non-urban break between Bannockburn and Teesdale;
- Adding land west of Teesdale-Lethbridge Road as a reason for exclusion from any rezoning proposal;
- Changing references to ‘buffer’ in relation to the landfill within the North East Growth Precinct with ‘Landfill Investigation Area’;
- Including a Teesdale Stormwater review as a future action; and
- Adding the town boundary to the legend in Amendment C92G
While Council approved these changes, a number of objections to the TSP and Amendment C92gpla remain outstanding. To impartially consider and resolve these, Council referred all submissions to an independent Planning Panel to be appointed by the Victorian Minister for Planning.
Council will now write to the Minister for Planning to request the independent Planning Panel, and will inform the Teesdale and wider Golden Plains Shire community when a panel is appointed.
To read more about the TSP and Amendment C92gpla, click here.