05/02/2024
Project Status Updates
Project Status Update – February 2024
On 7 December 2023, we released our Victorian Planning Authority Business Plan 2023-24. This plan outlines the projects and activities the VPA will undertake this financial year to deliver on the Victorian Government’s commitments and the priorities in Victoria’s Housing Statement – the decade ahead 2024-2034, which will deliver opportunities to increase housing supply and improve affordability outcomes for Victorians.
Clyde South is one of the 21 projects that the VPA will be progressing in 2023/24 as a due diligence project.
The due diligence process tests and proves if a project is viable for consideration for the VPA work program. We are seeking to ensure that any issues that require resolution are able to be dealt with in a timely way in a standard PSP process. The purpose is to identify and if possible, resolve any issues that could derail, delay or frustrate the outcome of the plan preparation process (should the Government choose to progress to this stage).
As Clyde South is in the due diligence phase, we are working to identify specific threshold issues that need to be resolved to determine whether it can progress or not to a PSP planning process. Once that work is done, we will prepare a report for consideration by the VPA Board and in turn to the Minister for Planning to determine next steps.
The key issues we are seeking to clarify and/or resolve if possible, in relation to the Clyde South project are:
- Transport (road and rail)
- Drainage
In the coming months we will be focused on preparing a project scope in collaboration with other government departments and agencies where there are dependencies and work being progressed for Clyde South.
As of 1 February, we have completed a biodiversity study of a portion of the rail corridor and sought expressions of interest from land owners to third party fund the due diligence work.
We are now working on the project scope and budget and once this is confirmed we will contact landowners to finalise third party funding to allow the technical work to commence.
To complete due diligence on Clyde South, we must also complete the technical studies and forward funding strategy to enable preparation, consultation, SAC (or Panel) review and finalisation for approval.
Once we have completed all technical studies and we understand the implications for the project, the next stage of the process will be a report to our Board for it to consider providing advice to the Minister.
We review our work program regularly, including our ability to speed up the progress of projects. We will update you as soon as possible when there are significant status changes for our planning for Clyde South.