Council calls for a “strategic reset” in City North

The Melbourne Innovation District in City North is touted to become one of the city’s most exciting precincts, but to reach its “maximum potential” the City of Melbourne has agreed that a strategic planning reset is required. 

The district stretching between RMIT’s Swanston St Campus and the University of Melbourne in Parkville is home to innovative infrastructure projects and internationally lauded education and research facilities. 

The vision set out within the Melbourne Innovation District’s City North Opportunities Plan in 2020 leverages emerging technologies and innovation, while building on the city’s unique characteristics to enhance education and economic outcomes. 

But according to the council’s outgoing planning portfolio lead Cr Rohan Leppert, the state government’s strategic plan for the precinct needed to evolve to allow for it to reach its maximum potential. 

Speaking at his last Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting on September 10, he said that the government needed to understand how these places could evolve and what their role can be. 

Councillors unanimously endorsed what was Cr Leppert’s final motion, which called for a reset of the scope of strategic planning work for the precinct, including shelving an outdated and unfinished planning scheme amendment. 

Amendment C431 was initially drafted in 2021 and within the City of Melbourne’s annual plan this year it has committed to progress the amendment, in addition to working with the Victorian Government to “progress strategic opportunities”.

The basis for the amendment was a requirement for research and innovation jobs on the first four floors of every new building.

CBD News understands that the intention when proposed was to proceed to a planning scheme amendment quickly and have the amendment in place well in advance of the opening of the two new Metro Stations in City North, Parkville and State Library.

With that window now closed and no draft being presented to the FMC, Cr Leppert said the opportunity had passed for the amendment to be implemented and that it had been superseded by the Municipal Planning Strategy.  

According to the amendment analysis document that was tabled on September 10, it was unclear how the “first four floors” control would work in the context of university campuses largely consisting of purpose-built single-use buildings.

It noted that based on preliminary feedback from the Department of Transport and Planning the draft amendment was unlikely to be supported.

Projects within the precinct will now be required to adhere to the Municipal Planning Strategy, which establishes the overarching strategic planning policy for the municipality.

The strategy considers the context, history, assets, strengths, attributes and influences which shape the City of Melbourne to establish the vision and strategic direction for future land use and development.

“Now is the time to not just fulfil a five-year-old action, it’s to reconsider what the most efficient thing that government can be doing,” Cr Leppert said.  

The council will set out its preferred scope of any new short-term strategic planning and public realm projects for the City North Innovation District which it will deliver through partnering with the state government and key stakeholders. •