Niddrie (Keilor Road) & North Essendon Activity Centres

Activity centres are community hubs where people shop, work, meet, relax and often live. They range in size, from local neighbourhood shopping strips to centres with universities and major shopping malls. They are places with lots of job options, services and housing, and good transport connections.

Find out more about activity centres on the Department of Transport and Planning website.

The catchment is the area around the activity centre. It is home to the locals who use the activity centre on a regular basis to shop, work and connect with family and friends. Because the catchment is close to the jobs, services, and transport of the activity centre, it can also accommodate more new homes.

The Victorian Government is introducing clear new rules to deliver 60,000 more homes in and around an initial 10 activity centres across Melbourne: Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie (Keilor Road), North Essendon, Preston (High Street) and Ringwood.

This is part of Victoria’s Housing Statement, a plan to improve housing affordability by tackling the root of the problem: not enough housing choice.

The 10 activity centres in the Activity Centres Program are a mix of neighbourhoods in the middle and outer suburbs of Melbourne. The Victorian Government chose them because they are great locations for more housing, have good transport connections and will benefit from State Government involvement to create clearer rules to increase housing choice.

Once in place, our clear new rules will allow more high-quality homes to be built within walking distance of the jobs, services and transport connections your neighbourhood has to offer.

This change won’t all happen at once. New homes will be built over the next two to 25 years as people choose to sell or develop their land.

This project will also guide investment in the things a growing community needs like improved streets, parks and community infrastructure.

There are more than 100 activity centres across Melbourne, each with its own identity and offering of jobs, shops and services that makes it unique. Niddrie (Keilor Road) and North Essendon are two of them.

Niddrie (Keilor Road) and North Essendon neighbour each other, and we are introducing clear new rules for both of them at the same time. To make it easier for the community to learn about these projects and have your say, we’ve included all the information about both activity centres in the one place. When there are opportunities for you to have your say, we will engage on both activity centres at the same time.

We will consult with the City of Moonee Valley to see how our clear new rules can build on the work they’ve already done in Niddrie (Keilor Road) and Essendon North. This will include looking at the MV2040 Strategy, and what they learnt from the community when they created this strategy.

Our clear new rules will balance the urgent need for more housing with the need to protect areas of heritage significance. The plans will draw from state and local rules about heritage, creating more housing choice while being sensitive to heritage.

Consultation is now open on the Niddrie & North Essendon Activity Centres. Visit engage.vic.gov.au/activitycentreprogram/niddrienorthessendon to have your say!

Your feedback is important. We want to understand what you love and value about your local area.

In addition to allowing new homes to be built, our clear new rules can strengthen the things that make your local area important to you.

Tell us what gives your area its identity, so we can reflect that in our design rules.

We want to ensure we hear a broad range of views from the community while planning for the future of Niddrie (Keilor Road) and North Essendon Activity Centre.

We are establishing a Community Reference Group (CRG) where community representatives can discuss and provide their input. We plan to hold two Community Reference Group meetings in Niddrie (Keilor Road) and North Essendon Activity Centre during 2024.

Find out more about the CRG, including how to apply, in the ‘Get Involved’ tab above.

The local council will consider planning applications and assess them according to the new rules.

Some applications may be eligible for Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program if they are considered to be significant developments. The program offers faster planning approvals where the Minister for Planning is the decision maker. Decisions made under the Development Facilitation Program are made in consultation with the community, councils and other key stakeholders.

Find out more about Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program at planning.vic.gov.au/planning-approvals/development-facilitation-program

In September 2023, the Victorian Government released Victoria’s Housing Statement: The decade ahead 2024-2034, setting a target to build 800,000 homes in Victoria over the next decade. It’s a simple proposition: build more homes, and they’ll be more affordable.

Find out more about Victoria’s Housing Statement at vic.gov.au/housing-statement.

The Victorian Government is updating Plan Melbourne – the Victorian Government’s current city strategy spanning 2017-2050 – and expanding it to cover the whole state. A new plan for Victoria will set into action what our state will look like over the coming decades. It will focus on delivering more homes near transport, job opportunities and essential services in vibrant, liveable, and sustainable neighbourhoods.

And as part of that work, it’s important that as many Victorians as possible can have their say on how our state grows in the years to come. There will be opportunities to have your say on a new plan for Victoria in 2024. Find out more at engage.vic.gov.au/developing-a-new-plan-for-victoria