Advocacy and earlier consultation

In August 2013 Council formally endorsed the Heathmont Activity Centre Structure Plan. The Plan provides guidance for land use, built form, access and movement networks, and public spaces that together can achieve environmental, social and economic outcomes for the Heathmont Activity Centre.

The Structure Plan was developed in collaboration with key stakeholders and was informed by extensive consultation and discussion with the Heathmont community. During this process Heathmont residents and local traders identified the need to manage the provision of parking within the busy Canterbury Road commercial shopping precinct.

Some of the key issues identified during this period of community consultation included:

• Traffic
• Carparking
• Pedestrian safety, including access to Heathmont railway station and across the railway line

Gazetted by the Victorian Minister for Planning on 11 October 2018, the Heathmont Activity Centre Planning Scheme Amendment C97:

• Amended Clause 21 of the Local Policy Planning Framework, and updated the Municipal Strategic Statement in the Maroondah Planning Scheme
• Applied a new Design and Development Overlay (DD08) for the commercial area in the Activity Centre
• Rezoned three properties, including 127B Canterbury Road, Heathmont from a railway use designation to a Commercial Zone 1.

In September 2016 a petition with close to 1900 signatures from the community called for Council to respond to the Heathmont Activity Centre Structure Plan, and to provide additional parking for the Heathmont Village shopping precinct as a priority, given the popularity of the area and the demand for parking exceeding the supply.

In response, Council resolved to complete a detailed investigation and to determine whether the provision of additional parking for the shopping precinct was feasible. It was noted at that time, there was no Council owned land available in proximity of the shopping precinct for the construction of new car parking.

As such, Maroondah City Council has for some years included in its Council Plan the need to provide additional carparking in its activity centres and to address congestion around our railway stations, advocating at both State and Federal levels of government for support in this regard.

With the provision of Australian Government funding for a carpark in the Heathmont Activity Centre, Council was able to fully purchase the 127B Canterbury Road site in 2020, which sits:

• adjacent to the railway line and station
• adjacent to the Heathmont Village shopping precinct
• adjacent to 7350 sqm of open space, including the FJC Rogers Reserve and playspace