VPRS 10283 Sub-Committee Minute Books

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In December 1922 an Act was passed establishing the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission. The Commissioners, appointed in an honorary capacity in 1923, were charged with providing advice on town planning in the Melbourne and metropolitan area.

The Metropolitan Town Planning Commission recommended development of planning schemes with statutory force to be administered by municipalities. Its work included research and recommendations on urban development and town planning.

In 1929 the Commission's report (concerning zoning, transport, recreation, harbours and rivers, building regulation, and conservation) highlighted problems of severe traffic congestion, deficiencies in recreational open space and the haphazard inter-mingling of land uses. It strongly recommended land use zoning as a means of preventing the "wasteful allocation of land" and protecting property values. Although a model land use scheme was produced, the Commission proposed that local councils should prepare such schemes under the supervision and co-ordination of a local town planning authority which would ensure rational planning which would encompass not only land use zoning but also traffic and service provision, civic design and the conservation of historic buildings.

Its 1929 report provided a model for those urging government to enact a statutory planning regime and for those municipalities undertaking land use zoning up to 1944.

This series comprises minutes of meetings of the Sub-Committees of the Commission. The Sub-Committees included, Finance Committee, Traffic Census Committee, Building Regulations Committee, Zoning Committee, and Standardization of Roads Committee.

The minutes of meetings of the Commission are located in VPRS 10282.