The Allan government has shrunk its suburban high-rise plans. Here’s what’s changed

The state government has reduced height limits for medium-density apartment buildings across Melbourne’s middle suburbs and shrunk the boundaries of areas earmarked for accelerated development in a significant downsizing of its housing plans.

After extensive consultation with people living and working within the first 10 so-called activity centres it announced last August, the government has rebalanced its fast-track guidelines for new housing to reduce the impact on suburban amenity while still allowing for higher-density developments near train stations.

Maps of revised activity centres for Ringwood, Camberwell and Frankston provided to The Sunday Age show that “core” areas identified for future apartment towers of between 10 and 20 storeys are largely unchanged – but the surrounding “catchment” areas have been reduced and their height limits halved.

Instead of greenlighting six-storey apartment blocks across “walkable catchments” – jargon for suburban neighbourhoods within a 10-minute walk of a train station – the government has reduced the maximum height to either three or four storeys.

In areas now called “inner catchments”, larger blocks of more than 1000 square metres and with 20 metres of street frontage can still have six-storey buildings.

Despite the reduced footprint and height limits, Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny will recommit to the government’s target of delivering an additional 60,000 homes by 2051 within the 10 activity centres when they announce the changes on Sunday.

The government plans to increase housing density around Ringwood station and other transport hubs.Credit: Justin McManus

“The status quo won’t cut it,” the premier said in statement to The Sunday Age before the announcement. “There is only one way out of the housing crisis – build our way out.”

The government intends to gazette its revised building regulations by next month.

Consistent feedback from residents to the government was that suburban streets included in the “walkable catchment” of activities’ centres weren’t actually within 10 minutes of a train station.

The difference between planning bureaucrats measuring walking times on Google Maps and the reality of walking through busy suburban areas and crossing major intersections is reflected in the changed boundaries.

Maroondah Mayor Kylie Spears, whose local government area takes in the Ringwood activity centre, welcomed the changes and said the government had listened to her council’s concerns.

“When this initially came out with a blanket six-storey limit in the walkable catchment, that was a massive impact on our community,” she said.

“There is a significant reduction in the heights and the scope. That is really pleasing. They have actually listened to us.”

Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny speak to Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke about the proposed ‘activity centres’ to be developed in specific suburbs including Frankston.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Spears said City of Maroondah housing stock was expected to double from today’s figure of 47,000 homes to 91,000 by 2051. According to the council’s plans, more than half of the new homes will be built within Ringwood’s activity centre core.

“We don’t need the walkable catchment to meet our targets,” she said. “That was our issue all along.”

Dr Stephen Glackin, a senior research fellow in urban planning and urban geography at Swinburne University, described the changes as “good, nuanced work” and a reasonable compromise by the Allan government.

He said the proposed density increases in each suburb were comprehensive, even with the reforms, and would still encourage a much-needed increase in housing density around Melbourne’s train stations.

“These activity centres around transport hubs are something everybody should be working towards,” he said. “Keeping these areas at a suburban scale doesn’t just make sense, given the cost of the infrastructure.”

The lead organiser for housing advocacy group YIMBY Melbourne, Jonathan O’Brien, said the changes were disappointing and reduced the ambition of the government’s reforms.

Jonathan O’Brien, from the Melbourne YIMBYs, says the state has missed a chance to drastically increase housing stock.Credit: Eddie Jim

He said that scaling back maximum height limits in the activity centre catchments from six storeys to three or four storeys would cut the potential housing increase in those areas by 50 per cent.

O’Brien said the government had “capitulated to wealthy home-owning incumbents” at the expense of people who want to own a home in a liveable, walkable part of Melbourne but are priced out.

“The government might be listening to wealthy incumbents, but they’re not listening to the voice of the poorer people, the renters, the young people, who have been systematically locked out of our inner city for decades.”

Although the government has not released the boundaries and height limits for 25 other activity centres announced in October last year, and is yet to publicly identify the locations of a further 25, the changes to its first 10 centres provide a guide for residents in other suburbs about what to expect.

The government has left unchanged the height limits for the core areas for all but two of its first tranche of activity centres. In the north-west suburbs of Niddrie and North Essendon and the northern suburb of Preston, the highest apartment building will be no more than 10 storeys. Further north in Broadmeadows and Epping, and in Camberwell, Chadstone and Moorabbin, the height limit stays at 12 storeys.

In Frankston, where the eastern border of the catchment area for accelerated development stops at the Frankston Freeway and the southern border at George Street, the maximum height of higher-density development has been increased from 12 storeys to 16 storeys since the initial plan was released for consultation.

This has the potential to dramatically reshape the character of the bayside suburb between Nepean Highway and the Frankston train line.

In Ringwood, a height limit of 20 storeys is restricted to three “strategic development sites” long identified for higher-rise apartments by the City of Maroondah’s own development plans. A height limit of 15 storeys will apply throughout the rest of the activity centre core.

Developments that meet the height and other requirements of activity centres are “deemed to comply” with building regulations and can bypass council approval processes.

The government has flagged that developers building in activity centres will be required to make a financial contribution towards the upkeep of local roads and parks but is yet to finalise the details of this.

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