The Montague Precinct and Fishermans Bend – Have your say on Victoria’s largest urban renewal project

The Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) has released the draft Montague Precinct Infrastructure Plan (PIP) and draft Development Contributions Plan (DCP) for Fishermans Bend.

These documents are on public exhibition until 23 February 2024 and will have a substantial impact on landholdings across the Fishermans Bend urban renewal area.

The Fishermans Bend urban renewal project covers five precincts across two municipalities – the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip – and connects the Melbourne CBD to the bay. Tipped as Australia’s largest urban renewal project, the renewal area is approximately 480 hectares, identified in the map.

Source: Fishermans Bend urban renewal – City of Melbourne

Source: Fishermans-Bend-Framework.pdf (fishermansbend.vic.gov.au)

Montague PIP

A copy of the Montage PIP can be found here.

Montague is one of the five neighbourhoods in Fishermans Bend and is identified in the Fishermans Bend Framework as a place for ‘a diverse and well-connected mixed use precinct celebrating its significant cultural and built heritage, and network of gritty streets and laneways.’

The PIP provides detailed place-based guidance about the future infrastructure projects and upgrades to streets, laneways, public spaces and community facilities. For example, it includes identification of buildings which are flagged as having significant cultural and built heritage value, which are proposed to have limited development potential in the future.

The DCP

A copy of the DCP can be found here.

The purpose of the DCP is to fund over 120 essential infrastructure projects that are required to support the urban renewal of Fishermans Bend. ‘Essential infrastructure’ is considered to include precinct and neighbourhood open spaces, streets that make up the key movement network, key community hubs and major drainage and flood mitigation infrastructure. Other types of infrastructure such as public transport, schools and minor streets and laneways will be funded and delivered by a mix of state government, works normal to the development of sites and local government.

The DCP provides a single, three-in-one charge rate of $34,635 per dwelling and $286 per sqm of non-residential gross floor space. This amount comprises:

1. $24,968 per dwelling for essential infrastructure – roads;
2. $6,667 per dwelling for open space (replacing the current 8% public open space contribution); and
3. $3,000 per dwelling for major drainage and flood mitigation infrastructure (replacing any separate charged ordinarily levied by Melbourne Water).

The incorporation of public open space contributions into the DCP as a single charge means that the State will now be responsible for administering the funding, rather than the local council. The current wording of the draft DCP also provides that the Collection Agency, being the State, may agree to staged payments via a Section 173 Agreement being registered on title.

In the interim, from now until the DCP is finalised and gazetted, the current infrastructure contribution will be increased to $27,968 per dwelling and $231 per square metre of non-residential development, with existing public open space at 8% remaining in place. This is estimated to be a 30% increase compared to rates on recently approved developments in the area, where the interim charge was approximately $20,210 per dwelling.

An additional Open Space Uplift (OSU) has been proposed to complement the DCP. The OSU aims to provide a development incentive to help fund land for parks by enabling a ‘density bonus’ where land is gifted to the State for public open space. There are eighteen sites which have been nominated across the precinct as being eligible – these sites are shown in the maps of the relevant schedules to the Capital City Zone and in the below excerpt from the Fishermans Bend Open Space Uplift Factsheet.

Source: https://engage.vic.gov.au/download/document/33339

The DCP will be considered at a Standing Advisory Committee Hearing from 27 May 2024 to 21 June 2024.

Next Steps

Submissions for both the PIP and DCP must be received by Friday, 23 February 2024, at 5pm.

If you require assistance preparing a submission, please contact Planning & Environment Partner, Andrea Towson.

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Authored by:

Andrea Towson, Partner
Carlyna Yap, Lawyer