Full description Background
From 1922 to 1929 the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission (VA 3131), financed partly by Melbourne metropolitan municipalities and partly by contributions from the Railways, Tramways, Harbour Trust, and the Board of Works, operated in an advisory and honorary capacity. Its work included research and recommendations on urban development and town planning. Its 1929 report (concerning zoning, transport, recreation, harbours and rivers, building regulation, and conservation) provided a model for those urging government to enact a statutory planning regime and for those municipalities undertaking land use zoning up to 1944.
As part of postwar reconstruction, the Commonwealth prompted the States to undertake both town and regional planning. In Victoria, town planning functions were set up on a statutory basis administered through the Town and Country Planning Board (T&CPB) (VA 516). Regional planning (cf. regional development) was carried out through the State Regional Boundaries Committee and subsequently by the Central Planning Authority.
The work of the T&CPB in the preparation, amendment, administration and enforcement of planning schemes and interim development orders included:
co-ordinating and advising planning authorities responsible for developing and administering statutory planning schemes, and
advising the Minister whether or not schemes and scheme amendments prepared by municipalities and other planning authorities should be approved and gazetted.
The Development of Strategic Planning 1968 to 1988
After the overhaul of state planning legislation in 1968 the functions undertaken by the Town and Country Planning Board were broadened to include
the co-ordinated development of statewide general land use planning policies to provide effective guidance for the preparation of statutory planning schemes and co-ordination of planning mechanisms available to various government agencies and statutory authorities
preparation of Statements of Planning Policy with the assistance of the State Planning Council, later the State Co-ordination Council. These bodies consisted of representatives of various service, development and conservation authorities and were to develop broad scale, strategic land use policy and produce statements of planning policy for specific areas or types of land use which when approved by the Minister and gazetted, became government policy and legally binding on both councils and regional authorities. Statements of Planning Policy which came into operation were:
Statement of Planning Policy 1 (Westernport) 1970 (varied 1976)
Statement of Planning Policy 2 (Mornington Peninsula) 1970
Statement of Planning Policy 3 (Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenongs)
1971 (varied 1979)
Statement of Planning Policy 4 (Yarra River) 1971 (varied 1979)
Statement of Planning Policy 5 (Highway Areas) 1973
Statement of Planning Policy 6 (Land Use and Aerodromes) 1973
Statement of Planning Policy 7 (Geelong) 1973
Statement of Planning Policy 8 (Macedon Ranges and Surrounds) 1975
Statement of Planning Policy 9 (Central Gippsland) 1975
It was envisaged that regional planning authorities established under the post-1968 legislation would operate in most, if not all, the regions of Victoria. It was also envisaged that the Statements of Planning Policy would provide the guidelines for regional authorities to develop regional planning schemes (statutory) to be administered by local municipalities. However most of those regional planning authorities which were established were given primarily a strategic planning role rather than a statutory planning role.
Data time period: 1836 to 2013