Plan2Place Consulting was engaged in July 2019 to undertake a review of the Hepburn Planning Scheme and develop a new format planning scheme to guide land use and development in the municipality over the coming decades. Plan2Place were pleased to be working with Council to shape Hepburn’s future to 2040, helping to address the significant issues facing the Shire of climate change, peri-urban pressures, enhanced protection of heritage and landscapes and adaptation of tourism and economic development activities to meet the future needs of the community.

A final Review Report suitable to provide to the Minister for Planning and meet legislative requirements was adopted by Council in February 2020. This consisted of three strands of work:

The Data and Evidence Report provided an extensive review of strategic work undertaken since the planning scheme was gazetted in 2000. Input from the community on the success of the scheme and their aspirations for the future formed a second report, while the Planning Scheme Audit Report reviewed the planning scheme from a technical planning systems architecture and outcomes perspective.

The recommendations of the Review Report aim to improve both the performance of the planning scheme and the need to update its format, being cognisant of emerging trends and community values. Some of these actions will be able to be implemented immediately through a planning scheme amendment while a range of new strategic work will be proposed for further development and testing with the community over coming years.

A planning scheme amendment was drafted by Plan2Place in 2021 to implement the recommendations of the Review Report. Plan2Place worked with DELWP’s Smart Planning team and Regional office to develop a new scheme in the PPF format providing the foundation for future strategic work and improved outcomes from land use and development in the Shire. Plan2Place presented Council’s advocate submissions to the Planning Panel and prepared Council’s response to the Panel’s recommendations. The amendment was gazetted in February 2022.