Friday, December 13, 2024

Plan to grow heart of Geelong

The Victorian Government has announced new planning controls for central Geelong in a bid to create jobs, growth and enhance the State’s second largest city as a great place to live, work and visit.

The Central Geelong Framework Plan – A Plan for the heart of Djilang 2022 focuses on the growth and development of Geelong’s city centre, providing direction for future building design and scale.

Minister for Planning, Sonya Kilkenny said the Framework Plan supports a central city that provides jobs, services, housing, and key destinations for the regions rapidly growing community.

“Central Geelong is significant to the State and the Barwon region, and better design guidelines will protect important community values and provide greater certainty for investors to plan ahead,” said Ms Kilkenny.

She said the Plan provides direction for significant growth while protecting the unique qualities of central Geelong through new planning controls and guidelines for building design.

Continued improvements to the city’s streets and public spaces are also set out in the Plan, as are actions for the improvement of public transport.

The Framework Plan provides capacity for 60,000 jobs and 16,000 residents by 2050, compared to the current 20,000 jobs and 2,500 residents in Central Geelong.

Through high quality urban design and appropriate protections against excessive overshadowing and better protection for heritage buildings, the city will maintain and enhance its urban amenity and unique character.

The Framework Plan and the new planning controls provide clear expectations and certainty for the community and investors to ensure central Geelong continues to deliver as a UNESCO City of Design.

The Framework Plan has been informed by Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, the City of Greater Geelong, the Geelong Authority, land holders and the broader community.

“We’re ensuring growth in Geelong is appropriate, directed to the right areas and protects what makes our city such a great place,” said Member for Geelong, Christine Couzens.

The Plan also complements projects already happening across the city, including the next stages of the Malop Street Green Spine, the Arts and Culture precinct, laneway breakthroughs, and projects through the $500 million Geelong City Deal including the future Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The Framework Plan is given to effect today, through an amendment to the Greater Geelong Planning Scheme.

More information on the framework plan can be found at revitalisingcentralgeelong.vic.gov.au.

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