Have your say on the future of our townships

Published on 18 May 2023

Hepburn Shire Council invites the community to provide feedback and ideas on the future of townships around the Shire as it develops township structure plans for Clunes, Creswick, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, Glenlyon and Trentham.

These plans will look at future options for each town in terms of housing, business and economic development, transport (including walking and cycling), protecting the environment and cultural heritage, neighbourhood character and urban design.

“This is your opportunity to influence what type of development is allowed in your town and what changes and improvements are needed to ensure the Shire continues to be a great place to live,” said Mayor, Cr Brian Hood.

“A structure plan provides more certainty about how development occurs in the future. Residents rightly feel a sense of ownership of a town so it’s critical that our community provides input into what they want to see protected and what opportunities there may be,” he said.

“Council is co-designing these township structure plans with the community and the first step is for residents to complete an online survey on our Participate Hepburn website or your local library or Council hub.

“We want to work closely with the community on this project as we plan for a prosperous future together.”

Complete a survey via before 11pm on Sunday 18 June 2023.

“We are also hosting Community Conversation events in our towns where you can come along and have a discussion about your priorities and ideas for your town with Councillors, the project team and staff,” said Cr Hood.

“For residents who want to be more involved we also are calling for volunteers to join our Engagement Pool, where members can share feedback on project activities and share information with the community. Volunteers can be involved as much or as little as they like,” he said.

Engagement Pool applications are via Council’s Participate Hepburn page.

Town Structure Plans are part of the new once-in-a-generation strategic planning project, Future Hepburn, which ties into many of the priorities outlined in the Council Plan 2021-24. Other plans and strategies associated with Future Hepburn include Urban Design Frameworks, Neighbourhood Character Assessments, Integrated Transport Strategy, Agriculture Land and Rural Settlement Strategy and more. Council will be working on these in 2023 and 2024. There will be many opportunities to participate in this work. For more information visit https://participate.hepburn.vic.gov.au/future-hepburn.

Daylesford – Monday 29 May from 4pm to 6pm at Victoria Park Pavilion Hepburn Springs – Tuesday 30 May from 4pm to 6pm at Hepburn Recreation Reserve Trentham (Listening Post) – Wednesday 31 May from 4pm to 6pm at Trentham Sportsground Reserve Pavilion Clunes – Thursday 1 June from 4pm to 6pm at Clunes Town Hall Creswick – Wednesday 7 June from 4pm to 6pm at Doug Lindsay Reserve Glenlyon – Thursday 8 June from 4pm to 6pm at Glenlyon Town Hall.