Environment/ Rural Areas

    • The Planning Scheme seeks to help maintain and protect the health of ecological systems and biodiversity, support development based on ecologically sustainable principles, and minimise the impact of natural hazards such as bushfires and floods.
    • The Planning Scheme identifies and seeks to protect areas of important biodiversity, habitat for rare or threatened species and communities, as well as managing the risk of bushfires and floods.  
    • Climate change is having a profound impact on the way we live now and will live in the future, with increased extreme weather events, including bushfires, flooding, and extreme temperatures.  
    • The State Government is continuing to streamline bushfire provisions to make them clearer and simpler.
    • Planning controls have recently been approved for the continued protection of the Yarra River Corridor.
    • Loss of tree canopy has increased because of continuing development including multi-unit developments, large single houses and infrastructure projects.  While planning controls can limit the overall net loss, these restrictions do not apply to single houses.  Retention and addition of trees is important in terms of both neighbourhood character and reducing urban heat.