Local policy: some advice

Des Eccles

Planning training: some notes

about local policy:

• should not be regulatory; to apply as regulation is improper


• should be consistent


• to which clear meaning can be given; meaningful to help make decisions


• VCAT is required to consider; consider does not mean 'give effect to'


• the words of your local policy will be subjected to 'forensic examination'

'if its not in the scheme, its not worth the paper its written on'

Making decisions in planning:

• must be dispassionate


• 2 reasonable people could come to different conclusions

Yarra Yarra: the Birrerung

from Clearings
Paul Fox

A chapter about Bunce, who laid out Geelong's Botanic Gardens after many years spent travelling in Australia gathering botanic specimens. His work at Geelong was prolific.
He spent some years in Melbourne around the time of white settlement around 1839
Of his first trip up the Yarra Yarra he recalled

'"its banks thick with vegetation including a tree (most probably a kind of melaleuca) with 'long heavy branches that hung in massive graceful branches over the river's side'"

Victorian Coastal Forum

23 April 2009
for the presentations referred to below see www.vcc.vic.gov.au Victorian Coastal Forum
Three themes of the Victorian Coastal Strategy

• climate change
• population growth
• the marine environment

John Church CSIRO

• sea level rise will be variable (will not rise like water in a bath tub)
• sea level rise will come from both mass and volume change (thermal expansion)
• we might go from 1 in 5 year events every 1 to 2 years, and historically derived 1 in a hundred year events several times a year
• combined storm surge and tide wil have more impact than sea level rise

for more information go to www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/

see also presentation from Clive Attwater from SGS:

Lyndon Webb from Wellington Shire

• ask developers to prepare a climate change sea level response plan (include S173 to acknowledge risk on vulnerable properties)

Peter Christoff

• burden sharing

Risk assessment is primary

'deceptive certainty of lines on maps' to define acceptable levels of risk

Docklands

'This is my country and I don't know where I am' said Aunty Di Kerr welcoming guests to country at Docklands. 

Referring to the changes that have taken place at Docklands

The role of buses in the future of Melbourne

Chris Loader
Bus Association of Victoria

• mode shift is happening
• buses are growing by 14%
• car traffic is stagnating
• 80% of Melburnians only have access to buses
• most vulnerable Melburnians have the least service
• SMARTBUS is being successful in increasing patronage with 15 minute frequencies. Patronage has doubled
• has significant congestion benefits
• growth in full fare patrons
• one bus costs about $400,000 to get into service

To read one of Chris's presentations go to Bus Association of Victoria at

http://www/busvic.asn.au/database/files/CLoader-EmissionsReductions.pdf

6 May 2009

Green Transport Breakfast: Harry Barber

Harry Barber
Bicycle Victoria

• unpick the barriers one by one and strengthen the positives

Green Transport: Michael Hopkins

Michael Hopkins
Department of Transport


Three approaches:

• macro-urban form - creating a polycentric city
• increasing the capacity of public transport
• increasing efficiency - eg carpooling

Quotes

• 'we've got to do everything'

5 May 2009