Final drafts of Township Structure Plans and Rural Hepburn considered

Published on 29 August 2024

Council will consider final drafts of the Township Structure Plans (for Clunes, Creswick, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, Glenlyon, and Trentham) and Rural Hepburn Strategy at a Special Council Meeting on Tuesday 3 September. These form part of the Future Hepburn project.

Bradley Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, said that the Future Hepburn project has been the most significant strategic planning project Hepburn Shire Council has ever delivered, with the potential to touch every landowner, resident and visitor in the Shire, now and into the future.

“We appreciate the interest and engagement we’ve had on the Future Hepburn project and the valuable feedback received from the community and stakeholders, over the last two years.  We have taken onboard all of the feedback and made some adjustments to the plans and strategy.”

“Officers have spent considerable hours reviewing submissions, technical advice and conducting many workshops with Councillors and ultimately have reconsidered and made some changes to areas earmarked for rezonings and other planning changes. This was only made possible by overwhelming community and government assistance provided during the consultation period,” he said.

The engagement period for Future Hepburn ran between Wednesday 1 May to Wednesday 26 June 2024. The initial engagement period of six weeks was extended by two weeks in response to community feedback. 

“Engagement on this project should be celebrated. Over the engagement period we had 32,441 page views of the Future Hepburn project page on Participate Hepburn, 12,971 letters and 8,016 text messages were sent to the community to encourage submissions, we hosted seven Community Information Sessions with 623 participants attending, held a Future Hepburn webinar with 80 participants attending and a total of 366 views, and received a total of 577 submissions from community members and other stakeholders. This is a significant level of engagement,” said Mr. Thomas.

One of the drivers for the Future Hepburn project is Victorian State Government planning policy mandates that all municipalities have sufficient urban land available to cater for projected population growth.

Improved, long-term, strategic land use planning has been a major focus of Council and support many actions included in the Council Plan 2021-25.

The draft Township Structure Plans and Rural Hepburn Strategy were developed after extensive consultation with community panels, community and stakeholder groups throughout 2023, along with specialist technical advice from consultants and Council officers with expertise in planning, ecology, infrastructure, transport, recreation, and economic development.

“The potential adoption of the Township Structure Plans and Rural Hepburn Strategy on Tuesday will not result in ‘overnight’ changes to Hepburn Shire’s planning provisions. The implementation of the adopted plans and strategy will take some time and will involve future planning scheme amendments. This is a statutory and legal process, involving additional formal community and stakeholder consultation, future Council decisions at key stages, independent expert scrutiny of Council’s strategic work, and finally, a decision from the Minister for Planning on whether to adopt or reject Council’s proposed planning scheme amendments,” said Mr. Thomas.

To view the Special Council Meeting agenda, visit Agendas and minutes

To register to attend the Special Council Meeting, visit Public participation

To view a webinar explaining recommended changes to the draft Township Structure Plans and Rural Hepburn Strategy after feedback from the community and stakeholders, visit https://youtu.be/XZD5Yq7AJ-U or view below.

(Timestamps: Introduction - 0:00 Rural Hepburn - 7:33, Glenlyon - 17:26, Clunes - 23:09, Creswick - 30:53, Daylesford - 38:50 and Trentham - 48:40)