Current update
The Greater Bendigo City Council has prepared Amendment C274gben (the Amendment) to the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. The Amendment affects land in the township of Heathcote by:
- Making various changes, largely to correct zoning anomalies (such as residentially used properties but in a commercial zone or crown land that is in a rural zone but should be a Public Park and Recreation Zone (PPRZ)
- Rezoning land in a Commercial 1 and Commercial 2 Zone that were not appropriate for commercial development to a Neighbourhood Residential Zone
- Deleting the Neighbourhood Character Overlay (NCO) from land that is also subject to a Heritage Overlay in line with Planning Practice Note 91
- Applying the Design and Development Overlay Schedule 6 to private land that adjoins forested crown land to protect the vegetation and environmental values of the crown land
- Applying the Environmental Audit Overlay to land on the Back Kyneton Road, formerly the Shire of McIvor landfill
- Making several minor changes to overlay controls to fix anomalies
- Introducing a number of Heathcote specific policies into the Planning Policy Framework to help guide planning decisions in Heathcote
The Amendment was on public exhibition from February 15 to March 18, 2024.
Submissions received to the Amendment were considered by the Council at its April 22, 2024 meeting. Council resolved to accept the submissions and to adopt the recommendations detailed for each submission and to request the Minister for Planning to appoint an independent planning panel to consider all the submissions received.
On April 30, 2024, the Minister for Planning appointed a one-person Panel to hear and consider all submissions. Following the hearing, the Panel prepared a report containing its recommendations, which is publicly available.
Council considered the recommendations of the panel at its August 26, 2024 meeting and adopted the proposed changes. The Minister for Planning has now approved the Amendment with changes and the approval was published in the Victorian Government Gazette on 20 March 2025. The changes to the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme that were proposed by this Amendment came into effect on that date.
The processing of the Amendment is now finished.