New Draft Structure Plans for SRL East Precincts

Urbis, in partnership with AJM and SRLA team members, took a comprehensive and context-sensitive approach to the project, developing urban design technical reports that provide tailored recommendations for urban form, built form and public realm within the SRL East precincts. Recognising the unique characteristics and future roles of each area, the team meticulously divided each precinct into distinct urban form areas, ensuring that development patterns are informed by their specific contextual conditions.

Our approach included an in-depth investigation into international built form typologies and strategies for integrating increased residential populations within existing suburban settings. This research enabled us to apply best practice built form outcomes across the precincts, enhancing public realm and amenity outcomes for future neighbourhoods.

Key public realm directions focused on creating inviting streets and places that support community life, promoting active transport access, fostering resilient urban environments and facilitating outdoor recreation. To achieve these directions, we established a precinct-wide public realm framework plan, with built form typologies selected on the desired public realm outcomes for each urban form area.

Our urban form directions aimed to accommodate required growth while maintaining high-amenity environments and establishing diverse, liveable and productive neighbourhoods. Predominantly, mid-rise built form typologies were chosen for each urban form area to support these goals. For each urban form area, we established a series of built form recommendations, encompassing building heights, setbacks, density, and private open space.

Over the course of their preparation, the urban design thinking was woven through the draft Structure Plans in a continuous cycle of refinement and iteration.

Our team prepared a series of technical reports estimating floorspace demand based on population and employment projections. This required developing key assumptions, such as average workspace per employee and average household size for residential areas, to translate resident and worker numbers into floorspace demand estimates. Urbis developed a significant body of evidence to accurately estimate the amount of residential, employment and retail floorspace required within each Structure Plan precinct. The process involved analysing historical growth patterns, identifying precincts with similar development trends and examining trends in household formation and employment and retail floorspace needs. Given the unique characteristics of each precinct, tailored assumptions were developed accordingly.

Using these floorspace demand estimates, Urbis then carried out advanced capacity analyses to assess whether the areas surrounding the stations could accommodate the expected population and employment growth under the proposed draft Structure Plan controls. This included evaluating development potential for individual sites while considering constraints such as overlays and strata titles, ultimately determining the ultimate floorspace capacity under the proposed planning controls.

Working closely with AJM JV and SRLA Planners, Urbis led the way in preparing a suite of draft Planning Scheme Amendments (PSAs) that seeks to introduce new planning settings to give effect to the key Structure Plan objectives and outcomes. The draft planning provisions support the transformational change envisaged within each precinct, using progressive planning tools that feature extensive deemed to comply provisions, a public benefit and uplift framework and bespoke provisions for strategic sites.

The planning controls were prepared in parallel with the development of the draft Structure Plans and within an evolving context of planning reforms and emerging metropolitan planning policy (including Plan for Victoria). Department of Transport and Planning was also developing new zone and overlay provisions for use in SRL and other priority precincts across Melbourne at the same time the draft PSAs were being prepared. This rapidly evolving context required constant agility by SRLA and the AJM JV to ensure the new planning settings remained aligned with the broader policy and reform context.   

The preparation of the draft PSAs involved detailed interrogation of best practice planning approaches used in other jurisdictions, as well as lessons learnt from other precinct planning exercises in Victoria, to ensure the planning approach in SRL precincts was discernibly more robust and market responsive.

For the first time in a precinct setting, the draft PSAs also take up the opportunity afforded by the new Precinct Zone to introduce a ‘Public Benefit Uplift Framework’, which enables landowners to secure development uplift in exchange for the delivery of a nominated public benefit. This work was informed by examination of a wide range of uplift frameworks and mechanisms in operation across both Victorian and interstate precincts, alongside consultation with councils and agencies responsible for their administration.

The draft PSA controls were progressively refined with the benefit of multiple stages of peer review examination, legal review, assessment of alignment with Structure Plan outcomes and engagement with state government agencies. 

Providing certainty and encouraging investment have been key drivers in developing the new planning controls, which represent a thoughtful and well resolved approach to guide positive development activity in the precincts. The controls will embed a higher level of certainty for developers than has occurred in precinct planning exercises in the past, with widespread use of ‘deemed to comply’ provisions, exemptions from public notice and opportunities for development uplift that are not yet found in any other precinct context in Victoria.