Victorian Labor MP Kelvin Thomson has renewed his fight against urban sprawl.
The member for Willis has been a vocal critic of an expanding Melbourne, and an increased population, and is again urging the Victorian government not to allow residential developments on the city’s fringe.
“We’re growing upwards and outwards,” Thomson wrote in his latest community newsletter. “Melbourne is becoming an obese, hardened artery parody of its former self.”
Thomson is opposed to the Victorian government’s 2030 plan, which would see the city’s boundary expand by 41,000 hectares.
“A lot of people ... supported Melbourne 2030, the vision of a compact city because they regarded it as preferable to urban sprawl. What they haven’t realised until now is that it isn’t halting urban sprawl. Suburbs continue to march out to the horizon.”
The newsletter coincides with planning minister Justin Madden’s new planning guidelines for Precinct Structure Planning (PSP). The planning tool to enables the development of master plans for suburbs of more than 3,000 dwellings each.
“The PSP guidelines will be the cornerstone of our new growing communities and will ensure we get the strategic planning right from the start,” said Madden.
The new guidelines will cover all land earmarked for development within Melbourne’s growth areas and replace interim guidelines issued in September 2006.
The reforms support the creation of the Urban Growth Zone announced last year to streamline the development process in Melbourne’s growth areas of Casey-Cardinia, Hume, Whittlesea, Melton — Caroline Springs and Wyndham.
Madden told media this, along with inner city developments, were aimed at providing residents with the “choice to live close to the city, or the choice to live in our growth suburbs”.
Director at MGS Architects Melbourne, Eli Giannini, said she was supportive of the 2030 plan, but would encourage infill development.
“I think that we can be a lot denser, we don’t necessarily have to go outwards, we can develop areas we have already built on.”
