Melbourne rebuilt as a city of apartments

What has been imposed?

Apartment development is planned far beyond major centres and railway stations. New building codes, widespread rezoning and fast-track approval pathways extend apartment redevelopment deep into Melbourne’s established residential suburbs, while shifting decision-making away from councils and to the Minister for Planning.

Rather than a coordinated vision for complete, liveable communities, the planning changes facilitate piecemeal, market-led redevelopment through individual development proposals responding to new planning rules.

A height limit is no longer a height limit. New discretionary height limits in major centres and at train stations can be — and already are being — exceeded in Boroondara, while Ministerial and fast-track approval pathways allow developments to exceed even the mandatory height limits in smaller neighbourhood centres and residential streets.

This is not just about the sixty Activity Centres and six SRL stations. Heritage protections are being weakened. Permits can be issued in breach of restrictive covenants. Quiet low-rise streets across Melbourne’s established suburbs are being opened to intensive redevelopment. These changes are all part of the same apartment-led planning model.

This is not isolated redevelopment. It is a planning model designed to progressively rebuild Melbourne into a city of apartments.

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