Plan2Place Consulting was engaged by Hobsons Bay City Council (HBCC) to peer review the outline of its draft Industrial Land Management Strategy (ILMS) and the Planning Policy Framework (PPF) and to provide a statutory planning options analysis report. The new ILMS updates Council’s 2008 ILMS and Industrial Development Design Guidelines with implementation through the PPF in the Hobsons Bay Planning Scheme (HBPS) to provide clear guidance about the municipality’s industrial land use and development.

Council prepared the Reimagining our Industrial Areas – A Statement of Opportunity and state level strategies such as the Melbourne Industrial and Commercial Land Use Report (MICLUP), provide clearer direction for state and regionally significant industrial land in a changing economic and employment context. Most of the industrial land included in the HBPS is either of state or regional significance and has increasing importance for the municipality’s and Melbourne’s employment and economic development. Retention of this land for industrial and commercial purposes is critical, as reflected in Plan Melbourne and the MICLUP.

Of importance to the project was the efficient implementation of the planning framework for industrial land that was strategically justified through the new ILMS and supporting studies and documentation. Key to successful implementation was ensuring that the strategic basis for any new or updated planning controls and policies for industrial land were robust, clear and defensible to meet the requirements of adopted state, regional and local planning strategies, the Victoria Planning Provisions (VPP) and associated guidelines.

An options analysis was prepared outlining the advantages and disadvantages of various planning implementation approaches through VPP tools such as Council’s Municipal Planning Strategy, planning policies, zones and overlays.

It was concluded that each tool had various advantages and disadvantages to deliver improved planning implementation approaches for industrial areas with differing degrees of complexity and simplicity with a range of options outlined.