Planning sustainable futures for Melbourne's peri-urban region

Planning Sustainable Futures for Melbourne's Peri-urban Region. This study outlined current sectoral trends in the land use, agriculture, water resources, biodiversity, and socio-economic sectors for six Victorian peri-urban municipalities and explores the policy and institutional arrangements associated with these trends. The six municipalities form the Peri-urban Group of Councils. The report found that the peri-urban group of councils constitutes a region which contains extensive similarities and is experiencing similar pressures and problems. It concludes that the region would benefit from a coordinated policy framework and responses to emerging issues at all levels of government. The report found that extensive spatial, policy and institutional fragmentation had occurred in the study area. Most of the rural areas had been subdivided into lots of varying sizes, many jointly owned as part of larger properties, each lot able to be developed. Under current land use policies and planning schemes, extensive incremental development of dwellings and other uses will occur on these fragmented lots over time with significant cross-sectoral implications particularly for servicing costs to local government, the provision of social services, landscape quality, water use, agriculture and biodiversity