Council adopted new planning protections for Ruskin Park precinct

Council has adopted a planning amendment that is set to see Ruskin Park in Croydon rezoned to add greater protection to its landscape and neighbourhood character.

At its meeting on Monday 18 March, Council adopted Amendment C107, that introduces a new Neighbourhood Residential Zone (NRZ) with the Amendment now to be submitted to the Minister for Planning for final approval.

Maroondah Mayor Councillor Rob Steane said this was a positive outcome for the community.

“Ruskin Park is a pocket of Maroondah that has some unique characteristics that we need to protect including the undulating landscape, variety of large canopy trees, heritage properties and large blocks,” Cr Steane said.

Cr Steane thanked the community for their input and patience during the preparation of the Amendment.

“Introducing any change to the Maroondah Planning Scheme is an extensive process as we need to work within the parameters set by the Victorian Government. Council recognised the need to add further protections to the Ruskin Park area and we were determined to go through the process to ensure it happened,” Cr Steane said.

“The Amendment will help to ensure that the neighbourhood and landscape character of the area is managed in a manner that provides for an appropriate balance between the provision of vegetation and built form,” Cr Steane said.

“One of the changes will see height restrictions reduced from 11 metres to nine metres, which allows for two storey development while allowing the tree canopy to still be dominate in the precinct,” Cr Steane said.

Cr Steane said the process to get the Amendment to the adoption phase has been extensive and was consistent with work currently being undertaken by Council to update its Neighbourhood Character Study

“Amendment C107 was a priority action included within our Maroondah Housing Strategy in 2016 and we received authorisation from the Minister for Planning in October 2016 to prepare the Amendment which was placed on public exhibition.” Cr Steane said.

“The community were very engaged during this period taking the opportunity to share their views on the Amendment and cementing for us that there was broad community support for stronger protections,” Cr Steane said.

The Minister for Planning appointed an independent planning panel to consider the 33 formal submissions received.

The Panel considered all submissions received and concluded:

The Ruskin Park precinct is located south of Hull Street, north of Mt Dandenong Road, between Silverley Road and Emmerson Street to the west and the eastern municipal boundary with Yarra Ranges Council.

Amendment C107 will now be submitted to the Minister for Planning for consideration and approval.