Minutes of Planning and Consultation Committee Meeting

Planning and Consultation Committee Meeting

held at the Civic Centre, Civic Drive, Greensborough
on Tuesday 14 February 2023 commencing at 7:00pm.

Minutes

Carl Cowie

Chief Executive Officer

Friday 17 February 2023

Distribution: Public

Civic Drive, Greensborough

PO Box 476, Greensborough 3088

Telephone 9433 3111

Facsimile 9433 3777

Website www.nillumbik.vic.gov.au

Email nillumbik@nillumbik.vic.gov.au

Main Doc - CMYK

Planning and Consultation Committee Meeting Minutes 14 February 2023

Nillumbik Shire Council

Minutes of the Planning and Consultation Committee Meeting held
Tuesday 14 February 2023. The meeting commenced at 7:00pm.

Councillors present:

Cr Ben Ramcharan Sugarloaf Ward (Mayor)

Cr Richard Stockman Blue Lake Ward

Cr Natalie Duffy Edendale Ward

Cr Peter Perkins Ellis Ward (Chairperson Planning Matters)

Cr Frances Eyre Swipers Gully Ward (Chairperson Consultation Matters)

Cr Geoff Paine Wingrove Ward (Deputy Mayor)

Officers in attendance:

Carl Cowie Chief Executive Officer

Blaga Naumoski Director Governance and Communications

Rosa Zouzoulas Director Planning and Community Safety

Vince Lombardi Chief Financial Officer

Leigh Northwood Manager Strategic Planning

Katia Croce Governance Lead

1. Welcome by the Chair

2. Acknowledgement of Country

Acknowledgement of Country was read by the Chairperson Consultation Matters Cr Frances Eyre.

3 Apologies

An apology for this meeting was received from Cr Karen Egan.

Committee Resolution

MOVED: Cr Natalie Duffy

SECONDED: Cr Ben Ramcharan

That the Committee (acting under delegation from Council) notes the apology of Cr Karen Egan.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

4 Disclosure of conflicts of interest

Nil

Planning and Consultation Committee Minutes 14 February 2023

6. Officers’ reports

PCC.001/23 Draft Neighbourhood Character Strategy Outcomes of Phase 2 Engagement

Item: Consultation Matter

Distribution: Public

Manager: Rosa Zouzoulas, Director Planning and Community Safety

Author: Leigh Northwood, Manager Strategic Planning

Summary

The development of both a new Neighbourhood Character Strategy (NCS) and Housing Strategy (HS) are priority actions in the current Council Plan 2021-2025.

The project to develop a NCS is fully funded over 2 financial years (see budget implications below) and is significantly advanced with a consultant team comprising Ethos Urban and Chatterbox Projects engaged to assist with much of the technical and consultation to develop the new NCS along with Council officers.

The areas covered by the Strategy include all residential land within the Shire (this does not include Green Wedge).

This most recent round of engagement (Phase 2 – Draft NCS) was specifically about seeking feedback on the draft Neighbourhood Character Strategy itself.

Engagement was conducted over a 6 week period between 29 August 2022 and
10 October 2022.

The engagement activities were effective in reaching over 1,500 people, with 107 providing direct feedback via a survey or submission, 175 people visiting the place-based pop-up events and over 1,200 people visiting the Participate Nillumbik project page (refer below for further detail with regard to outcomes of consultation).

With regard to relevant feedback to Phase 2 engagement, three key and interrelated topics were prominent:

a) The strength of the document;

b) Development and density; and

c) Trees and vegetation.

Particularly written submissions to the draft NCS are lengthy and have a lot of technical matters that need to be unpacked and effectively responded to.

Subject to this PCC, officers will bring recommendations to a future Council briefing which will include a detailed analysis of submission responses including commentary from officers including the Project Working Group. This briefing will identify recommended direction to consultants with regard to changes to the draft NCS and its next iteration.

Subject to changes to the draft NCS with consideration of feedback provided through Phase 2 engagement, officers will subsequently seek approval from Council to put the draft NCS out for a third round of engagement (close the loop) at a Council meeting in mid-2023.

After conducting this third round of engagement, the next step in the project is for Council to consider:

a) Adopting a final draft (potentially with further changes) of the NCS.

b) Initiating a planning scheme amendment to give weight to the NCS in the Nillumbik Planning Scheme noting this process involves another formal round of consultation whereby the final adopted version of the NCS will be exhibited to the community and stakeholders pursuant to the notification requirements of the Planning & Environment Act 1987, who will have another opportunity to provide comment.

The following people addressed the Committee with respect to this item:

1 Jim Connor

2 Tim Phillips on behalf of Graham Fildes

3 Tim Phillips

4 Carlota Quinlan on behalf of Eltham Community Action Group

5 Carlota Quinlan

6 Teresa Dominik on behalf of Brougham Street Cohousing Group

7 Kathy Armour

8 Sue Dyet

9 Janice Davies on behalf of Warrandyte Community Association

10 Michael Dove

Committee Resolution

MOVED: Cr Geoff Paine

SECONDED: Cr Natalie Duffy

That the Committee (acting under delegation from Council):

1. Notes the public responses, as outlined in this report, to the Phase 2 engagement for the Draft Neighbourhood Character Strategy (NCS).

2. Resolves that the confidential un-redacted copies of written submissions and survey responses to the Phase 2 public engagement of the Draft NCS (at Attachments 2 and 3) remain confidential on the grounds specified in the definition of confidential information in Section 3(1)(f) of the Local Government Act 2020.

3. Writes to all respondents to the public engagement to express Council’s gratitude for their contribution and to advise them of the Committee’s resolution and the next steps in the project on the updated Participate Nillumbik page.

4. Notes officers will bring an updated draft of the NCS to a Council meeting in mid-2023, to seek Council’s approval to undertake a third round of public engagement on the draft NCS, as updated as an outcome of Phase 2 engagement.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Katia Croce, Governance Lead temporarily left the meeting at 7.42pm and returned at 7.44pm, during submissions.