GAA Annual Report 2008-2009

Laying the foundations for the future shape of Melbourne in the next two decades has been at the heart of the Growth Area Authority’s work agenda over the past year.
The Authority has been instrumental in analysing which land is most suitable for inclusion in the expanded Urban Growth Boundary after examining a raft of technical considerations and hearing from the community. As a result, future population growth will primarily be concentrated to Melbourne’s north, west and to a lesser extent the southeast where growth is now pushing further and further out from central Melbourne.
What’s different about this blueprint is the more focused integration of land use planning and transport in an unprecedented initiative being driven right across the Victorian Government. Planning for Melbourne’s Outer Metropolitan Ring Road and the Regional Rail Link have been factored into the planning equation so that new housing in these areas will be more sustainable than at any time
before. The GAA is also supporting the creation of two new protected grassland areas in Melbourne’s west, the result of our comprehensive work mapping native flora and fauna on a scale not undertaken before. The implementation of new guidelines for planning large-scale communities or ‘precincts’ will also introduce a new level of rigour to what gets built in Melbourne’s new communities.

GAA Annual Report 2008 – 2009